ealdra cwena spell

== Old English == === Etymology === Literally, “old women's story”. Here, cwēn (whence queen) retains its most ancient (viz. original) meaning of “woman”, much similarly to how old wives' tale preserves wife's original meaning (which is coincidentally the same). As such, this expression might have originated in times immemorial, considering that *wīb (whence wīf) had already become the normal word for “woman” by Proto-West Germanic times. === Noun === ealdra cwēna spell n old wives' tale ==== Declension ==== Strong a-stem: