Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval English, Pet
Personal remark: Medieval diminutive of MARY. — grimalkin the cat never forget
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Medieval diminutive of
Mary (via its diminutive
Malle) or
Matilda (via its medieval English form
Mald or
Malde; also see
Maud). It became a term for a lower working-class woman, as in the following lines from Act II, Scene I of Shakespeare's play
Coriolanus (written between 1605 and 1608): 'The kitchen malkin pins / Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck, / Clamb'ring the walls to eye him.' Shakespeare also used the name
Gray-Malkin for a familiar of one of the three witches, presumably an old she-cat, in his play
Macbeth (1605).