bawd

English

Alternative forms

baud
baude

Etymology

From Middle English bawde, baude, noun form of Old French baud (“bold, lively, jolly, gay”), from Old Low Frankish *bald (“bold, proud”), from Proto-Germanic *balþaz (“strong, bold”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to inflate, swell”). Cognate with Old High German bald (“bold, bright”), Old English beald (“bold, brave, confident, strong”). More at bold.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /bɔːd/
(US) enPR: bôd, IPA^(key): /bɔd/
Rhymes: -ɔːd

Noun

bawd (plural bawds)

(now archaic or historical) A person who keeps a house of prostitution, or procures women for prostitution; a procurer, a madame.
- 1717, Ned Ward, British Wonders:
  As Whores decay'd and past their Labours, / Turn Bawds, and so assist their Neighbours.
- 2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin 2013, p. 76:
  Compared with their opponents, bawds and their associates increasingly had deeper pockets and greater confidence in manipulating the law.
A lewd person.

Derived terms

bawdship

Adjective

bawd (comparative more bawd, superlative most bawd)

(obsolete) Joyous; riotously gay.

Verb

bawd (third-person singular simple present bawds, present participle bawding, simple past and past participle bawded)

(archaic) To procure women for lewd purposes.

Anagrams

dawb

Welsh

Etymology

From Middle Welsh mawd < Proto-Celtic *mā-to- < Proto-Indo-European *mē-.Compare Breton meud and Cornish meusva.

Noun

bawd m (plural bodiau)

thumb
big toe
(of a crab or lobster) claw
hoof
(in slate quarrying) a flaw or crack in the slate
a bar projecting from rock face to which ropes are attached
(of a railway or tramway) points, turnouts

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
bawd	fawd	mawd	unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.