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concubine

US/ˈkɑŋkjəbaɪn/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,479 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: concubines

A concubine is a woman living with a man of higher rank without marriage. The king's concubine, kept as a concubine, wives and concubines.

It is a historical and legal term rather than a description anybody uses now: in several ancient societies concubinage was a recognised status, below a wife but above a servant, and the children's rights depended on it. It appears throughout the Bible and in histories of imperial China and Rome. Note concubinage; and that the word names a position in a household rather than a relationship.

Definitions of concubine

  1. 1nounconcubineA woman living with a man of higher rank without marriage.C1

    “The emperor kept a wife and several concubines in the palace.”

concubine is a household position.

Where it comes from

Latin concubina comes from concumbere, to lie together — con plus cubare, to lie down. Incubate and cubicle come from the same lying down.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *ḱewb-

  2. Latin

    concubīna

  3. Anglo-Norman

    concubine

  4. Middle English

    concubine

  5. English, today

    concubine

Built from

  • concumbō · Latin — to lie together

From Middle English concubine (first attested 1250–1300), from Anglo-Norman concubine, from Latin concubīna, equivalent to concub- (variant stem of concumbō (“to lie together”)) + feminine suffix -īna.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

concubine in the wild

  • A concubine could be freeborn or of slave origin, and her experience could vary tremendously according to her master's whim.

    Concubinage

  • During the Mongol conquests, both foreign royals and captured women were taken as concubines.

    Concubinage

  • Regardless of the age, however, it is common in English translation to simplify this hierarchy into the three ranks of empress, consorts, and concubines.

    Imperial Chinese harem system

  • The man takes his concubine over to the crowd, and they rape her until she collapses.

    Levite's concubine

  • In classical Islamic law, a concubine was an unmarried slave-woman with whom her master engaged in sexual relations.

    Islamic views on concubinage

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.