bawd

English

Alternative forms

• baud
• baude

Etymology

From Middle English bawde, baude, from Old French baud (“bold, lively, jolly, gay”). Doublet of bold. An association with Welsh bawddyn (“dirty fellow, scoundrel”), from baw (“dirt”), was suggested by the Rev. Henry Todd.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɔːd/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) enPR: bôd, IPA^(key): /bɔd/
• Rhymes: -ɔːd
• Homophones: baud; board, bored (non-rhotic)

Noun

bawd (plural bawds)

1. (archaic or historical) One who keeps a brothel, or procures women for prostitution; a procurer or madam.
   • 1717, Ned Ward, British Wonders:

     As Whores decay'd and past their Labours, / Turn Bawds, and so assist their Neighbours.

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Oeconomy and Happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 301:

     […] here were no Gibers, Cenſurers, Backbiters, Pick-pockets, Highwaymen, Houſebreakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gameſters, Politicians, Wits, ſplenetick tedious Talkers, Controvertiſts, Raviſhers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuoſo's; […]

   • 2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 76:

     Compared with their opponents, bawds and their associates increasingly had deeper pockets and greater confidence in manipulating the law.

2. (obsolete, by extension) A person who facilitates an immoral act, especially one of a sexual nature.
   • 1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I]:

     In ſaying this thou wrongſt me Gaueſton, / Iſt not enough that thou corrupts my Lord, / And art a Bawd to his affections, / But thou muſt call mine honour thus in queſtion?

3. A lewd person.

Synonyms

• brothelkeeper
• pimp
• procurer
• procuress

Derived terms

• bawdish
• bawdship
• bawdy
• cock-bawd
• pitcher-bawd

 

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

• BWAD, dawb

Welsh

Etymology

From Middle Welsh mawd, from Proto-Celtic *mā-to-, from Proto-Indo-European *mē-. Compare Breton meud and Cornish meus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbau̯d/

Noun

bawd m or f (plural bodiau)

1. thumb
2. big toe
3. claw (of crab or lobster)
4. (in slate quarrying) a flaw or crack in the slate

   Synonyms: crych, las, bachiad

5. a bar projecting from rock face to which ropes are attached
6. (of a railway or tramway) points, turnouts

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.