Kebse
German
Etymology
18th-century learned borrowing from Middle High German kebse, kebese, from Old High German kebisa, chebisa, from Proto-West Germanic *kabisi, from Proto-Germanic *kabisjō (“concubine”). Only the compounds Kebsweib and Kebskind were inherited. Cognate with Dutch kēves, Old English ċiefes.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈkeːpsə/
Audio (file)
Noun
Kebse f (genitive Kebse, plural Kebsen)
- (dated) concubine
- 1987, Karlheinz Deschner, Opus Diaboli. Fünfzehn unversöhnliche Essays über die Arbeit im Weinberg des Herrn, Reinbek: Rowohlt, pages 93–94:
- Trotz strikten Verbots erlaubten Bischöfe haufenweise ihren Priestern Kebsen für einen «Hurenzins», den man sogar von den unbeweibten verlangte, ja, von diesen – in Norwegen und Island – doppelt.
- In spite of strict prohibition bishops granted their priests paramours for a “whore levy”, which one even demanded from the womanless, or even – in Norway and Iceland – twice.
- Synonyms: Konkubine, Mätresse, Beischläferin, Kebsweib
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Declension
Declension of Kebse [feminine]
singular | plural | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
indef. | def. | noun | def. | noun | |
nominative | eine | die | Kebse | die | Kebsen |
genitive | einer | der | Kebse | der | Kebsen |
dative | einer | der | Kebse | den | Kebsen |
accusative | eine | die | Kebse | die | Kebsen |
Derived terms
- Kebsehe
- Kebskind (“bastard”)
Further reading
- “Kebse” in Duden online
- Friedrich Kluge (1989), “Kebse”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 364