bed wench
- noun
- Slur
:
[insulto ofensivo para una mujer considerada promiscua]
- In the historical novel, the lord mistreated the bed wench and ordered her to serve his guests.
Examples
-
During the medieval festival, they reenacted scenes where a bed wench would attend to the nobles' needs.
-
The tavern was filled with rumors about the bed wench who captivated the hearts of many soldiers.
-
We ask for whores and you bring us these bed wenches, my peasants, these commoners.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense is directly compositional: 'bed' (to have sexual intercourse) combined with 'wench' (a disparaging word for a young woman) yields a woman associated with sexual activity or availability. While historical or derogatory connotations may require cultural knowledge, the basic sexualized meaning is predictable for a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
Bed wench may come from older times when wench simply meant a young woman or servant and bed showed she worked in the bedroom. Because that work sometimes included sex, the phrase later became an insulting way to call a woman 'promiscuous' or a 'sexual servant'.
