Cuckold
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This article is about the term. For the 1997 novel by Kiran Nagarkar, see Cuckold (novel).
Cuckold historically referred to a husband with an adulterous wife and is still often used with this meaning. In evolutionary biology, the term cuckold is also applied to males who are unwittingly investing parental effort in offspring that are not genetically their own.[1] Since the 1990s, the term has also been widely used to refer to a sexual fetish in which the fetishist is stimulated by their committed partner choosing to have sex with someone else.[2]
Contents [hide]
1 History of the term
2 Metaphor and symbolism
3 Cultural usage of horn metaphor
4 Cuckoldry as a fetish
4.1 Theories in psychology
5 Theories in evolutionary biology and psychology
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
History of the term[edit]
c. 1815 French satire on cuckoldry, which shows both men and women wearing horns.
Cuckold derives from the cuckoo bird, alluding to the alleged habit of the female in changing its mate frequently and authentic (in some species) practice of laying its eggs in other nests within its community.[3][4] The association is common in medieval folklore, literature, and iconography. The original Middle English was "kukewold". It was derived from Middle English "cuccault", which was made up of "cucu" (Old French for the cuckoo bird itself) plus the pejorative suffix – "ault", indicating the named person was being taken advantage of as by a cuckoo bird.
English usage first appears about 1250 in the satirical and polemical poem "The Owl and the Nightingale" (l. 1544). The term was clearly regarded as embarrassingly direct, as evident in John Lydgate's "Fall of Princes" (c. 1440). In the late 14th century, the term also appeared in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale".[4] Shakespeare's poetry often referred to cuckolds, with several of his characters suspecting they had become one.[4]
The female equivalent cuckquean first appears in English literature in 1562, adding a female suffix to the "cuck". One often overlooked subtlety of the word is that it implies that the husband is deceived, that he is unaware of his wife's unfaithfulness and may not know until the arrival or growth of a child plainly not his (as with Cuckoo birds.)[5] Another word, wittol, which substitutes "wete" (meaning witting or knowing) for the first part of the word, designates a man aware of and reconciled to his wife's infidelity and first appears in 1520.[6]
See I thought it was implying because Kim is younger and probably hasn't had kids yet she's tighter down there making it seem to her that the guy's penis is bigger. After kids the wife might feel like a hotdog down a hallway.