bawd

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English bawde, baude, noun form of Old French baud (“bold, lively, jolly, gay”), from Old Low Frankish *bald (“bold, proud”), from Proto-Germanic *balþaz (“strong, bold”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to inflate, swell”). Cognate with Old High German bald (“bold, bright”), Old English beald (“bold, brave, confident, strong”). More at bold.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /bɔːd/
  • (US) enPR: bôd, IPA(key): /bɔd/
  • Rhymes: -ɔːd

Noun

bawd (plural bawds)

  1. (now archaic or historical) A person who keeps a house of prostitution, or procures women for prostitution; a procurer, a madame.
    • 1717, Ned Ward, British Wonders:
      As Whores decay'd and past their Labours, / Turn Bawds, and so assist their Neighbours.
    • 2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin 2013, p. 76:
      Compared with their opponents, bawds and their associates increasingly had deeper pockets and greater confidence in manipulating the law.
  2. A lewd person.

Derived terms

Adjective

bawd (comparative more bawd, superlative most bawd)

  1. (obsolete) Joyous; riotously gay.

Verb

bawd (third-person singular simple present bawds, present participle bawding, simple past and past participle bawded)

  1. (archaic) To procure women for lewd purposes.

Anagrams

Welsh

Etymology

Compare Breton meud.

Noun

bawd m (plural bodiau)

  1. thumb

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
bawd fawd mawd unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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