What does doxy mean?
Doxy is a noun with two quite separate lives in English. Its older and better-known sense denotes a man's mistress or female companion — a word rooted in the canting speech of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century beggars and rogues, among whom a 'doxy' was a vagabond's paramour who travelled with him. From that underworld origin it passed into broader colloquial and literary use, where it simply meant a sweetheart or kept woman, often with a dismissive or bawdy undertone; it survives today mainly in historical fiction, folk ballads, and discussions of early modern slang. Entirely independently, 'doxy' also arose as a playful, informal clipping of words such as 'orthodoxy', used humorously to mean a body of doctrine or opinion, as in 'the Baptist doxy'. Because of this double history, context matters greatly: one sense belongs to the vocabulary of love and vice, the other to theology and wit. Both senses are now rare, giving the word a distinctly antique flavour.
A man's mistress or female lover; historically, in vagabonds' cant, a beggar's female companion.
"The broadsheet mocked the magistrate whose doxy was well known about town."
Archaic and coarse; found mostly in ballads, historical novels, and scholarship on early modern slang.
Informal shortening of 'orthodoxy' or similar terms, denoting a body of doctrine or opinion.
"He dismissed the whole dispute as mere wrangling over Lutheran doxy."
Humorous and dated; used almost exclusively with modifying adjectives naming a denomination or school.
Standard regular plural, used for both senses.
"The play is crowded with rogues and their doxies."
'Doxy' began as Elizabethan thieves' slang for a beggar's woman before slipping into ordinary English — and its only surviving relative is church vocabulary like 'orthodoxy'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of doxy
The 'mistress' sense of doxy appears in English by the mid-sixteenth century, first recorded in the canting literature describing beggars' slang, where it denoted a vagabond's female companion; its ultimate origin is uncertain. The doctrinal sense derives independently from Greek 'doxa', meaning 'opinion' or 'belief', the same root that yields 'orthodox', 'paradox', and 'doxology'; it emerged as a jocular shortening of 'orthodoxy' in later religious polemic.
How doxy is actually used
The word is archaic, dialectal, or jocular in modern use; it carries a coarse or dismissive tone when applied to a woman, so it is best reserved for historical fiction, ballads, and discussion of early modern cant. The doctrinal sense ('doxy' = opinion) survives only facetiously in phrases like 'Lutheran doxy'.
Easily confused with doxy
Doxa is the Greek word meaning 'opinion' or 'glory' that gives us the theological sense of doxy, whereas doxy itself most commonly refers to a mistress or lover.
Docile means easily taught or managed and shares no connection with doxy despite a similar opening.