queen

Origin: From , queen, cwen, from , from , from , from . Cognate with , queen, , , , , , , , dialectal wife. Related to and possibly merged with and/or absorbed some senses of , from , from , see quean. Generally eclipsed non-native , borrowed from (see Modern English Regina). . In reference to insects, by analogy with the obsolete term king, which it took over from starting in the 1600s, when they were discovered to be female. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).