different between cuckold vs adultery

English

Etymology

From Middle English cokolde, cokewold, cockewold, kukwald, kukeweld, from Old French cucuault; a compound of cucu (“cuckoo”) (some varieties of the cuckoo bird lay their eggs in another’s nest) and Old French -auld. Cucu is either a directly derived onomatopoeic derivative of the cuckoo's call, or from Latin cuc?lus. Latin cuc?lus is a compound of onomatopoeic cucu (compare Late Latin cucus) and the diminutive suffix -ulus. -auld is from Frankish *-wald (similar suffixes are used in some personal names within other Germanic languages as well; confer English Harold, for instance), a suffixal use of Frankish *wald (“power, mastery, dominion”), from Proto-Germanic *wald? (“might, power, authority”) (compare German Gewalt), from *waldan? (“to rule”), from Proto-Indo-European *wal- (“to be strong”). Appears in Middle English in noun form circa 1250 as cokewald. First known use of the verb form is 1589.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??ld
• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?.k??ld/, /?k?.k?ld/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?k?.ko?ld/, /?k?.k?ld/

Noun

cuckold (plural cuckolds)

1. A man married to an unfaithful wife, especially when he is unaware or unaccepting of the fact.

   Synonyms: cornuto, cuck; see also Thesaurus:cuckold

   Coordinate terms: cuckquean; see also Thesaurus:cuckquean

   • 1546, François Rabelais, The Third Book, Chapter 36

     If I never marry, I shall never be a cuckold.

   • 2001, Goran V. Stanivukovic, Ovid and the Renaissance Body, page 178:

     In the early English drama, no play better approximates Ovid's contemptuous portrait of the willing cuckold than does Thomas Middleton's Chaste Maid in Cheapside (ca. 1612).

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:cuckold.
2. (fetishism) A man who is attracted to or aroused by the sexual infidelity of a partner.
3. A West Indian plectognath fish, Rhinesomus triqueter.
4. The scrawled cowfish, Acanthostracion quadricornis and allied species.

Synonyms

• (Rhinesomus triqueter): Ostracion triqueter, smooth trunkfish

Derived terms

• cuck
• cuckolder
• cuckoldress
• cuckoldry

Related terms

• bull
• horner (“one who cuckolds”); see also Thesaurus:cuckolder
• stag
• vixen
• cuckquean
• wittol

Translations

Verb

cuckold (third-person singular simple present cuckolds, present participle cuckolding, simple past and past participle cuckolded)

1. (transitive) To make a cuckold or cuckquean of someone by being unfaithful, or by seducing their partner or spouse.

   Synonyms: cuck, horn, hornify; see also Thesaurus:cuckoldize

   • 2008, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content 1319: The Flimsiest of Logic

     Hey, I would never cuckold one of my friends. That’s way not cool.

Translations

Further reading

• cuckold on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• smooth trunkfish on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• scrawled cowfish on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Etymology

From the Old French scholarly form adultere (“violation of conjugal faith”) (in Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons, 12c.), from Latin adulterium, from adulter. Replaced the older form avoutrie, from the popular Old French forms avouterie or aoulterie. Compare French adultère (“adultery”). Displaced Old English ?wbry?e. Not related to adult.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??d?lt??i/

Noun

adultery (countable and uncountable, plural adulteries)

1. Sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their spouse.
   • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, De Cive

     So also that copulation which in one City is Matrimony, in another will be judged Adultery.

   • 2009 Garner's Modern American Usage page 22

     Under modern statutory law, some courts hold that the unmarried participant isn't guilty of adultery (that only the married participant is)

2. (biblical) Lewdness or unchastity of thought as well as act, as forbidden by the seventh commandment.
3. (biblical) Faithlessness in religion.
4. (obsolete) The fine and penalty formerly imposed for the offence of adultery.
5. (ecclesiastical) The intrusion of a person into a bishopric during the life of the bishop.
6. (political economy) Adulteration; corruption.
7. (obsolete) Injury; degradation; ruin.

Synonyms

• advowtry (obsolete)

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• adultery in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• adultery in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.