Wiktionary

wif

See also: WIF

English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Alteration of with.

Pronunciation edit

Preposition edit

wif

  1. (informal, dialectal, nonstandard) with
    • 1998, Ted Shine, Contributions, →ISBN, page 31:
      That's what I mo' wear wif my shoes.
    • 2000, Jan King, It'a A Girl Thing: The Hilarious Truth About Women, →ISBN, page 161:
      I been at the gym gettin' down wif my peeps.
    • 2002, Stan Hayes, The Rough English Equivalent, →ISBN, page 324:
      If I don' have no problem wif my high school test?

Anagrams edit

Mapudungun edit

Adjective edit

wif (Raguileo spelling)

  1. long
  2. straight

Adverb edit

wif (Raguileo spelling)

  1. directly

Noun edit

wif (Raguileo spelling)

  1. irrigation ditch

References edit

  • Wixaleyiñ: Mapucezugun-wigkazugun pici hemvlcijka (Wixaleyiñ: Small Mapudungun-Spanish dictionary), Beretta, Marta; Cañumil, Dario; Cañumil, Tulio, 2008.

Middle English edit

Noun edit

wif

  1. Alternative form of wyf

Old English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-West Germanic *wīb, from Proto-Germanic *wībą, of uncertain origin.

Cognate with Old Frisian wīf, Old Saxon wīf, Old Dutch wīf, Old High German wīb, Old Norse víf.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

wīf n

  1. woman
    • c. 992, Ælfric, "The Annunciation of St. Mary"
      Ūs becōm dēaþ and forwyrd þurh wīf, and ūs becōm eft līf and hredding þurh wīfmann.
      Death and disaster came to us through a woman [Eve], and then life and salvation came to us through a woman [Mary].
    • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, John 4:27
      His leornungcneohtas wundrodon þæt hē wiþ wīf spræc, þēah heora nān ne cwæþ “Hwæt sēcst þū?” oþþe “Hwæt spricst þū wiþ hīe?”
      His disciples were amazed that he was talking to a woman, though none of them said “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking to her?”
  2. female
  3. wife

Usage notes edit

  • Since wīf is a grammatically neuter noun, all accompanying articles, determiners, and adjectives take neuter forms: þæt ealde wīf ("the old woman").
  • However, pronouns referring back to wīf are almost always feminine: Ġesiehst þū þæt wīf sēo þǣr stent? Canst þū hīe? ("Do you see the woman who [feminine] is standing there? Do you know her?"). The same applies to the neuter word mæġden (“girl”) and the masculine word wīfmann (“woman”), whose grammatical genders also disagree with their natural genders.

Declension edit

Declension of wif (strong a-stem)
Case Singular Plural
nominative wīf wīf
accusative wīf wīf
genitive wīfes wīfa
dative wīfe wīfum

Antonyms edit

  • wer (with respect to gender)

Derived terms edit

Descendants edit

Old Frisian edit

Alternative forms edit

  • wiif (Late Old Frisian)

Etymology edit

From Proto-West Germanic *wīb, from Proto-Germanic *wībą, of uncertain origin. Cognates include Old English wīf, Old Saxon wīf and Old Dutch wīf.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

wīf n

  1. woman
  2. wife

Descendants edit

References edit

  • Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN

West Frisian edit

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

wif

  1. shaky
  2. impermanent
  3. fickle, indecisive

Inflection edit

Inflection of wif
uninflected wif
inflected wiffe
comparative wiffer
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial wif wiffer it wifst
it wifste
indefinite c. sing. wiffe wiffere wifste
n. sing. wif wiffer wifste
plural wiffe wiffere wifste
definite wiffe wiffere wifste
partitive wifs wiffers —

Further reading edit

  • “wif”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
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