Obs. Also 6 cotecott-, 6–8 cot-. [f. cot + QUEAN ‘woman,’ esp. as a depreciatory term. The first element is apparently COT sb.1, COTE sb.1 in the sense ‘mean house, hut’: the original meaning being thus ‘housewife of a laborer’s cot.’ Thence the transition is easy on the one side to ‘one who has the manners of a laborer’s wife, rude ill-mannered woman, vulgar beldam, scold’ (cf. huzzy, HUSSY, from housewife), and on the other to a ‘man who acts the housewife.’]
1. (app.) The housewife of a cot or laborer’s hut. To play the cotquean: said of a man: see sense 3.
1547. Salesbury, Welsh Dict., Kotchwen, Cotequeane.
1589. Nashe, Almond for Parrat, 5. The Vicar of little Down, in Norfolke … groaping his owne hennes, like a Cotquean.
1624. Heywood, Gunaik., IV. 180. Aristotle … holds it as inconuenient and vncomely for the wife to busie herselfe about any publike affaires, as for the man to play the cotqueane at home.
2. opprobriously. A woman to whom the manners of such a housewife are attributed; a coarse, vulgar, scolding woman, a low beldam.
(Cf. such expressions as ‘to scold like a market-woman,’ ‘a fish-wife,’ ‘a tinker’s wife,’ etc.)
1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., 146. Why, thou … Cotqueane and scrattop of scolds, wilt thou neuer leaue afflicting a dead carcasse.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, IV. iii. [Jupiter to Juno] We are a king, cotquean … we will cudgel thee to death, if thou find fault with us.
1608. T. James, Apol. for Wickliffe, 67. Railing and scolding, more meretricum worse then Cot-queanes.
1633. Ford, ’Tis Pity, I. ii. Scold like a cot-quean; that’s your profession.
3. contemptuously. A man who acts the housewife, who busies himself unduly or meddles with matters belonging to the housewife’s province. Cf. similar use of old wife, old woman, etc.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., IV. iv. 9. Cap. Looke to the bakte meates, good Angelica, Spare not for cost. Nur. Go you Cot-queane, go, Get you to bed.
1611. Dekker, Roaring Girle, Wks. 1873, III. 177. I cannot abide these aperne husbands; such cotqueanes.
c. 1640. J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), II. 372. They fell upon him with opprobrious words, of Coward, Cotquene, Milksopp.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 482, ¶ 4. That kind of Husband who comes under the Denomination of Henpeck’d;… and who, in several Places of England, goes by the Name of a Cott-Quean. Ibid. (1716), Free-Holder, No. 38 (1751), 222 (J.). A Stateswoman is as ridiculous a Creature as a Cot-quean. Each of the Sexes should keep within its particular Bounds.
1772. Weekly Mag., 4 June, 205/1. They brand a man with the name of a cot-quean.
1825. Hogg, in Blackw. Mag., XVII. 113. If thou’rt a Cotquean by my soul, I’ll split thy pruriginious nowl.
Hence Cotqueaned ppl. a., ? made a (male) cotquean. Cotqueanity (nonce-wd.), character or quality of a (female) cotquean. Cotquean-like a.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 258 b. This unbrydeled and cottquenelike maner of scolding and lavishnes of toung. Ibid., 454. Cotqueanelyke rayling Rascallyke raging.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, IV. iii. We tell thee thou angerest us, cotquean; and we will thunder thee in pieces for thy cotqueanity.
1704. D’Urfey, Hell beyond Hell, Tales 79. Like a cotquean’d fool, whose life Is bless’d, if he can please his wife.
