Cuckold

by Cornelius Krieghoff depicting a cuckolded husband A cuckold is the husband of an adulterous wife; the wife of an adulterous husband is a cuckquean. In biology, a cuckold is a male who unwittingly invests parental effort in juveniles who are not genetically his offspring. A husband who is aware of and tolerates his wife's infidelity is sometimes called a wittol or wittold. The slang term bull refers to the dominant man who has relations with the cuckold's partner.

by Cornelius Krieghoff depicting a cuckolded husband]] A cuckold is the husband of an adulterous wife; the wife of an adulterous husband is a cuckquean. In biology, a cuckold is a male who unwittingly invests parental effort in juveniles who are not genetically his offspring. A husband who is aware of and tolerates his wife's infidelity is sometimes called a wittol or wittold. The slang term bull refers to the dominant man who has relations with the cuckold's partner. == Frequency of cuckoldry== Scientific evidence is that cuckoldry has been a fairly rare phenomenon. Studies, including one from genetic genealogist Maarten Larmuseau, show that in Western society only 1–2% of births come from unfaithful mothers. ===Horns and the rut=== In Western traditions, cuckolds have sometimes been described as "wearing the horns of a cuckold" or just "wearing the horns". This is an allusion to the mating habits of stags, who forfeit their mates when they are defeated by another male. In Italy (especially in Southern Italy, where it is a major personal offence), the insult " " is often accompanied by the sign of the horns. In French, the term is " ". In German, the term is " ", or " ", the husband is " ". In Brazil and Portugal, the term used is " ", meaning exactly "horned". The term is quite offensive, especially for men, and are a common subject of jokes and anecdotes. Rabelais's Tiers Livers of Gargantua and Pantagruel (1546) portrays a horned fool as a cuckold. In Molière's (1662), a man named Arnolphe (see below) who mocks cuckolds with the image of the horned buck ( ) becomes one at the end. ===Green hat=== In Chinese usage, the cuckold (or wittol) is said to be " " , translated into English as 'wearing the green hat'. The term is an allusion to the sumptuary laws used from the 13th to the 18th centuries that required males in households with prostitutes to wrap their heads in a green scarf (or later a hat). ==Associations== A saint Arnoul(t), Arnolphe, or Ernoul, possibly Arnold of Soissons, is often cited as the patron saint of cuckolded husbands, hence the name of Molière's character Arnolphe. The Greek hero Actaeon is often associated with cuckoldry, as when he is turned into a stag, he becomes "horned". This is alluded to in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, and others.

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