meacock

meacock

English

Etymology

Probably a blend of meek +‎ peacock, or from meek +‎ -cock (“diminutive suffix”). For use of cock as a diminutive suffix, see also niddicock.

Noun

meacock (plural meacocks)

1. (obsolete) An uxorious, effeminate, or spiritless man.
2. A meek man who dotes on his wife, or is henpecked.
   • 1593-1594, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, ii 1

     Petruchio: How tame, when men and women are alone / A meacock wretch can make the curstest shrew.

   • 1604, Thomas Decker and Thomas Middleton, The Honest Whore

     Viola: a woman’s well holp’d up with such a meacock. I had rather have a husband that would swaddle me thrice a day, than such a one that will be gull’d twice in half an hour.

   • 1876, Henry Taylor, Philip Van Artevelde., A Dramatic Romance., In Two Parts., Henry S. King & Co. (London), page 86

     Earl: A man that as much knowledge has of war / As I of brewing mead ! ... A bookish nursling of the monks—a meacock !

References

• meacock in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.