queen
A female ruler of a nation; the wife of a king.
Etymology
From Old English cwēn (woman, queen, wife), from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz, from PIE *gʷenh₃- (woman, wife). Originally the word simply meant 'woman' — the royal sense developed in English. Greek gunē (woman) and Old Irish ben (woman) are cognates from the same root.
The Journey: *gʷenh₃- → queen
*gʷenh₃-
*kwēniz
cwēn
quene
queen
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *gʷenh₃-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Greek | gunē (γυνή) — woman |
| Gothic | qino — woman |
| Sanskrit | jani — wife |
| Old Irish | ben — woman |
| Old Norse | kván — wife |
Did You Know?
Queen and quean were originally the same word. Queen rose to mean a royal woman, while quean sank to mean a disreputable woman — a stark example of how social hierarchy reshapes vocabulary.
This word descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷenh₃-. See the full root page for descendant trees, sound law references, and scholarly discussion.