What's the difference between concubine and wench?

Concubine


Definition:

  • (n.) A woman who cohabits with a man without being his wife; a paramour.
  • (n.) A wife of inferior condition; a lawful wife, but not united to the man by the usual ceremonies, and of inferior condition. Such were Hagar and Keturah, the concubines of Abraham; and such concubines were allowed by the Roman laws. Their children were not heirs of their father.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Carwyn Jones will remain first minister but his anointment threatened to be overshadowed by a sexism row after Ukip’s leader at the assembly, the former Tory MP Neil Hamilton , branded two senior female assembly members “political concubines” and called Plaid a “cheap date”.
  • (2) Winnie, meanwhile, raged ineffectually against the emotional cunning of the woman she called "that concubine".
  • (3) Abraham had only two concubines, where Solomon had 300, along with his 700 wives.
  • (4) Of the non-English language films that have won the Palme d'Or since 1990, only Amour has won the Academy award, while Farewell My Concubine , The Class and The White Ribbon have achieved a shortlist nomination.
  • (5) His mother had distant aristocratic origins, being descended from one of the sultan of Jogjakarta's concubines some generations back.
  • (6) The Old Testament is replete with stories of men like King Solomon who had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
  • (7) He is best known for a 1968 historical drama called The Eunuch, about concubines and emasculated servants unable to consummate their secret love.
  • (8) One should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar [non-believers] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of Islamic law,” the article said.
  • (9) If he pays her father to take her away, she is his concubine.
  • (10) Was Ramsay Snow’s concubine running away from a pack of slavering dogs or Iwan’s album listening party?
  • (11) 59% of the patients were between 20 and 29 years old (Table 1) and 74% were married (only 23 of these did not share their husbands with other wives or concubines) (Table 2).
  • (12) Responding to a tide of online criticism about his slave comments, Muthana wrote: "When I spoke about slave everyone jumped on me muslims and non muslims alike … so I stayed quiet and will stay quiet but everyone will soon find out when I get my own concubines lool, slave markets are on full blast."
  • (13) For slaves, concubines, gold and castles of ancient and medieval times, read private jets, holiday islands and football and baseball clubs of the contemporary era.
  • (14) Anti-government rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army in the most northerly districts of Uganda swept along and across it, fighting and stealing children - boys for soldiers and girls for concubines.
  • (15) The Chinese were the 1st to record the practice of induced abortion, with this operation being administered to royal concubines recorded at 500-515 B.C.
  • (16) A few weeks later an Isis pamphlet detailed how followers should treat these “concubines”, with special reference to virgins and underage girls.
  • (17) Pretty girls were often forcibly taken as wives or concubines.
  • (18) The award-winning films that heralded its 1990s renaissance, such as Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern and Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine, were banned in China.
  • (19) In this drama centered on the concubines of a Liberian rebel commander, making its New York debut at the Public Theatre, Lupita Nyong’o of 12 Years a Slave plays the newest abducted “wife”.
  • (20) There are other spots worth visiting outside the centre; notably the exquisitely glazed 17th-century Abak Khoja Mausoleum, also known as the Tomb of the Fragrant Concubine in honour of a consort of Emperor Qianlong.

Wench


Definition:

  • (n.) A young woman; a girl; a maiden.
  • (n.) A low, vicious young woman; a drab; a strumpet.
  • (n.) A colored woman; a negress.
  • (v. i.) To frequent the company of wenches, or women of ill fame.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A two-part German-South African co-production based on the bestselling Kate Mosse novel, it's a window-rattling potboiler bubbling with ancient religious conspiracies, comely medieval wenches, comely 21st-century academics, fogbanks of swirly past-times skulduggery, evil pharmaceutical CEOs in 10 denier tights, priapic chevaliers and, verily, a script that does dance a merry jig upon the very phizog of credibility.
  • (2) And it seems to have a reverse Midas touch – or, according to the version of the myth related by Aristotle, a standard Midas touch (everything the king touched turned to gold, including his food, so he starved to death, apparently lacking the wit to engage a serving wench to spoonfeed him).
  • (3) It’s as if John Falstaff , having been rejected by the newly crowned Hal in Henry IV Part 2, had suddenly started screaming about having photos of Hal’s misbehaviour with the wenches in an Eastcheap tavern.
  • (4) Nor is it a place for sunshine, cheer, labradors bumbling amiably across sweeping lawns, toffs fumbling buffoonishly with fish knives, shots of bonneted wenches that don't involve unwanted pregnancy or crying, or apple-cheeked Windy Miller types snapping their braces and whistling merrily as they inflate the bouncy castle of Social History.
  • (5) Now, call me a heartless wench, but the story of a nerd stealing a vague computer idea from a pair of wealthy twins called Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, as Zuckerberg was accused of doing, doesn't strike me as having the same dramatic hook as, say, saving the planet from imminent destruction, or escaping from the Nazis.