Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an effeminate man, one who is seen as dealing too keenly with domestic duties that are properly those of his wife, thus cotqueanity, the state of so being.

1571		A dictionarie French and English n.p.: Coquetier, cotqueane.
1589		T. Nash An almond for a parrat 4: It is not the Primitiue Church shall beare out the Uicar of little Down in Norfolke, in groaping his owne hennes, like a Cotqueane.
1595		Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet IV iv: cap.: Look to the bak’d meats, good Angelica: Spare not for cost. nur.: Go, go, you cot-queane, go; Get you to bed.
1602		B. Jonson Poetaster n.p.: We tell thee, thou angerst vs, Cotqueane; and we will thunder thee in peeces, for thy Cotqueanity: we will lay this City desolate,.
1611		Middleton & Dekker The Roaring Girle III ii: I cannot abide these apron husbands; such cotqueanes!
1629		‘The Woman to the Plow’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 186: One morning with good intent, / The Cot-quean fool did surely dream, / For he had quite forgot the cream.
1633		Ford ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore I ii: Scold like a cot-quean, that’s your profession. Thou poor shadow of a soldier.
c.1640		J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1883) II 372: They fell upon him with opprobrious words, of Coward, Cotquene, Milksopp [OED].
1645		M.P. The figure of five n.p.: There bee five sorts of men either of which if a woman match withall, shee’s unhappy; a whoremonger, a common Drunkard, a peevish foole, a medling cotquean and a jealous Coxcombe.
1657		T. Heywood The generall history of vvomen 250: Aristotle [...] holds it as inconvenient and uncomely for the wife to busie her selfe about any publick affaires, as for the man to play the cotquean at home.
1660		Bradshaw’s Ghost 2: Though Lambert’s VVife and I to th’ cotquean / Did read the Horn-book.
1677		G. Miege A new dictionary French and English n.p.: COCKQUEAN, or cotquean, un homme qui affecte de faire la cuisine.
1689		R. Wild The benefice 24: The Practice of good Housewifery, I trow, an excellent Book this is.— I pray you, Sir, speak to your Servants, they call me Cotquean, and I know not what.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Cot for Cotquean, a Man that meddles with Womens matters.
a.1719		J. Addison in Works (1856) 37: A stateswoman is as ridiculous a creature as a cotquean; each of the sexes should keep within its bounds.
1772		Chesterfield ‘Affectation in Female Sex’ in Beauties of Chesterfield (1828) 18: They brand a man with the name of a cot-quean, if he invades a certain female detail .
1825		Hogg in Blackwood’s Mag. XVII 113: If thou’rt a Cotquean by my soul, I’ll split thy pruriginious nowl .
1854		Judge & Jury Society (Coal Hole Tavern, London) 4 July [advert] Yet the slave-dealing cotquean, may flourish and thrive, / And evading all law, he hard bargains may drive.