concubine

English

Etymology

From Middle English concubine (first attested 1250–1300), from Anglo-Norman concubine, from Latin concubīna, equivalent to concub- (variant stem of concumbō (“to lie together”)) + feminine suffix -īna.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑŋkjəbaɪn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

concubine (plural concubines)

1. A sexual partner, especially a woman, to whom one is not or cannot be married.

   Synonyms: mistress, sprunk; see also Thesaurus:sexual partner, Thesaurus:mistress

2. A woman who lives with a man, but who is not a wife.

   Synonyms: cohabitor, cohabitant, domestic partner

   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     And that is more than I will yield unto: / I know I am too mean to be your queen, / And yet too good to be your concubine.

3. (chiefly historical) A slave-girl or woman, kept for instance in a harem, who is held for sexual service.

   Synonym: odalisque

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

     He ſhall be made a chaſte and luſtleſſe Eunuch,
     And in my Sarell tend my Concubines:

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Judges 20:4–6:

     And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead. And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.

   • c. 1909, Mark Twain, “Letter VIII”, in Letters from the Earth:

     Solomon, who was one of the Deity's favorities, had a copulation cabinet composed of seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.

Derived terms

• concubinage
• concubinal
• concubinary
• mancubine

 

Translations

a woman who lives with a man, but who is not a wife

• Arabic: سُرِّيَة f (surriya)
• Aramaic:

  Classical Syriac: ܕܪܘܟܬܐ f (dərūḵtā)

• Armenian: հարճ (hy) (harč)
• Basque: ohaide (eu)
• Belarusian: нало́жніца f (nalóžnica)
• Bikol Central: sambay (bcl)
• Bulgarian: нало́жница f (nalóžnica)
• Catalan: concubina (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 妾 (zh) (qiè), 姨太太 (zh) (yítàitài), 妃 (zh) (fēi) (imperial concubine), 側室 / 侧室 (zh) (cèshì) (archaic)

• Czech: konkubína (cs) f
• Danish: konkubine c
• Esperanto: kromvirino
• Finnish: avovaimo (fi)
• French: concubine (fr) f
• Georgian:

  Old Georgian: ხარჭი (xarč̣i)

• German: Konkubine (de) f
• Greek: παλλακίδα (el) f (pallakída)

  Ancient: παλλακίς f (pallakís), παλλακή f (pallakḗ)

• Hebrew: פִּילֶגֶשׁ (he) f (pilégeš)
• Hungarian: ágyas (hu)
• Indonesian: selir (id)
• Irish: bean luí f, bean leapa f
• Japanese: 妾 (ja) (めかけ, mekake, しょう, shō), めかけ (ja) (mekake), 側室 (ja) (そくしつ, sokushitsu)
• Korean: 첩(妾) (ko) (cheop)
• Latin: paelex f, concubīna f, amāsia f (Mediaeval), amīca f, coniūnx (la) c, pallaca f
• Macedonian: наложница f (naložnica)
• Manchu: ᠠᠰᡳᡥᠠᠨ
  ᠰᠠᡵᡤᠠᠨ (asihan sargan), ᡤᡠᠸᡝᠯᡝᡴᡠ (guweleku)
• Manx: colhiabbagh f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: konkubine m or f

  Nynorsk: konkubine f

• Polish: konkubentka f, konkubina (pl) f, nieślubna (pl) f
• Portuguese: concubina (pt) f, amásia (pt) f, barregã (pt) f
• Russian: нало́жница (ru) f (nalóžnica), (kept woman) содержа́нка (ru) f (soderžánka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: конкубина f

  Roman: konkubina (sh) f

• Slovak: konkubína (sk) f
• Spanish: concubina (es) f
• Swahili: suria
• Swedish: konkubin (sv) c
• Tagalog: kalaguyo, kabit (derogatory)
• Thai: (royal) (พระ~)สนม (th) (sà-nǒm)
• Ukrainian: нало́жниця f (nalóžnycja)
• Vietnamese: vợ lẻ, (dated) nàng hầu (vi)
• Welsh: gordderch f, gordderchwraig f, cywelyes f

slave-girl — see slave-girl

mistress — see mistress

See also

• harem
• polygamy
• co-wife
• seraglio

References

• Random House Unabridged Dictionary
• “concubine”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch concubine, from Middle French concubine, from Old French [Term?], from Latin concubīna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkɔŋ.kyˈbi.nə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: con‧cu‧bi‧ne
• Rhymes: -inə

Noun

concubine f (plural concubines or concubinen, masculine concubaan or concubant)

1. concubine

   Synonyms: bijvrouw, bijwijf, bijzit, bijzitster

2. (Suriname) female partner in a common-law marriage

Derived terms

• concubinaat

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin concubīna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.ky.bin/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

concubine f (plural concubines, masculine concubin)

1. cohabitant, female domestic partner
2. concubine

Further reading

• “concubine”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kon.kuˈbi.ne/
• Rhymes: -ine
• Hyphenation: con‧cu‧bì‧ne

Noun

concubine f

1. plural of concubina

Latin

Noun

concubīne

1. vocative singular of concubīnus

Middle English

Alternative forms

• concubyne, concubyn, concubin

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman concubine, from Latin concubīna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔnkiu̯ˈbiːn(ə)/

Noun

concubine (plural concubines)

1. A concubine; a secondary female partner.
2. (rare) A illegitimate or unacknowledged partner (male or female)

Descendants

• English: concubine

References

• “concūbīn(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-12.