archwife
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English archewyf, arche wif, equivalent to arch- + wife.
Noun edit
archwife (plural archwives)
- A big, masculine wife; a dominating woman; virago.
- 1977, Geoffrey Chaucer, Theodore Morrison, The Portable Chaucer: Revised Edition:
- You archwives, strong as camels, take the high
And overpowering hand against the male.
- 2002, Pauline Croft, King James:
- Lady Wallingford had been circulating defamatory libels against Buckingham, leading James to comment that Wallingford was like his father-in-law, 'altogether guided and overruled by an archwife'.
- 2003, Stephanie Forward, Dreams, Visions and Realities, page 3:
- "To pay homage to the World Harlot, the Mandrake Venus, the Archwife, the Ever-existing, who has been, is, and will be. […] "
- 2008, Georgette Heyer, False Colours, page 191:
- All the same, Master Kit, it looks like you're in a case of pickles – if her ma's half the archwife the postboy says she is! Seems to me you'll have to hang up your axe.'
- 2013, Barbara Metzger, Greetings of the Season and Other Stories:
- Some poor fool might have been saved a lifetime of misery if the archwife had drowned in the ditch after all.