wittol

From Middle English witewold; likely a blend of witen (“to know”) + cockewold (“cuckold”), equivalent to wit +‎ cuckold.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪtəl/

wittol (plural wittols)

1. (archaic) A man who knows and tolerates his wife's infidelity with another man or men; a cuckold.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):

     , New York Review of Books 2001, p.67:

     To see […] a wittol wink at his wife's honesty, and too perspicuous in all other affairs […].

   • 1885, Sir Richard Francis Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, "Night 13"

     So the Ifrit cried at her, "Thou whorest and makest me a wittol with thine eyes;" and struck her so that her head went flying.

   • 1960, John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor

     God help the husband that obliges his wife's least whim: he'll be a wittol ere he's two years wed!

2. (Britain, dialectal, obsolete) A bird, the wheatear.

• cuckold
• cuckquean
• mari complaisant