The origination of the term cuckold comes from the cuckoo bird, the bird synonymous with the cuckoo clock. Cuckoos have an interesting mating phenomenon which orders the Alpha and beta of the species, both male and female. Alpha cuckoo birds mate with Alpha females. Alpha females reject beta male sexual advances. However, female cuckoo birds will allow beta males to help build nests, sit on eggs to keep them warm and feed hatchlings. This especially frees the Alpha female of such time-consuming responsibilities and allows her to resume her sexual availability for mating… furthering the perpetuation of the species. In addition, Alpha females will sometimes lay their eggs in a lesser female’s nest expecting that female and her beta male to raise her feathered flock.
As observers of cuckoo bird behavior, Germans, Swiss and Austrians began fashioning the signature clocks centuries ago. These Europeans also originated the bird’s name from the unique sound of their bird call. The term cuckold is thus derived from the cuckoo’s sexual and domestic behavior. Cuckoldry exists in many species as cuckolding is, at its very essence, crucial to the survival of a species. Cuckolding frees up genetically superior members of a species from familial duties, so they can focus on mate selection and mating.
It is important for human beta males and cuckolds to realize they are not viewed as mating material by females. Nevertheless, cuckolds do have a place in the world, to sustain higher status females who seek superior males for mating and to support these females once they do. Alpha males will literally swoop around spreading their genetic material. It is their purpose. Their purpose is not to be burdened with raising a family or a flock. That burden falls on the cuckoo cuckold.
Nota bene:
Orson Welles ad libbed these lines in the classic film, The Third Man (1949). Enjoy.
“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed. They produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
