Wenchel

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic word for a young girl or small child, used in Middle English and now obsolete
2. A dated term once used to refer to a little girl or a young child in older English writing
3. An obsolete noun meaning a young female child, found mainly in medieval and early modern texts

Etymology: In Old English, "wencel" meant a child, and it was sometimes used of a weakling too. It is related to "wancol," meaning unsteady or tottering, so the core image is of a small, unsteady creature on its feet. Middle English kept this root in "wenchel," a form that means a child or youth and is now obsolete. The word then shrank and shifted. By the later Middle English period, "wench" had narrowed from any child to a young girl, and from there it could mean a young woman, including a servant. Over the following centuries it picked up a sexual connotation and became a derogatory term for a loose woman or prostitute. The older sense survives mainly in historical and literary texts, so the word's original meaning is now almost entirely lost.