Noun
concubine (plural concubines)
- 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
- 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.
- (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.
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
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References
- Random House Unabridged Dictionary
- “concubine”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˌkɔŋ.kyˈbi.nə/
- Hyphenation: con‧cu‧bi‧ne
- Rhymes: -inə