Wiktionary

wife

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English wyf, wif, from Old English wīf (“woman, wife”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīb, from Proto-Germanic *wībą (“woman, wife”).

Germanic cognates include Scots wife (“wife”), West Frisian wiif (“wife, woman”), Saterland Frisian Wieuw (“woman, lady, female”), North Frisian wüf (“wife, woman”), Dutch wijf (“woman, female”), Low German Wief (“woman, female”), German Weib (“woman, wife, female”), Danish viv (“wife, woman”), Norwegian viv (“wife, woman, girl”), Swedish viv (“woman”), Faroese vív (“wife, woman”), Icelandic víf (“woman”).

The further etymology is unknown, with a number of disputed suggestions. One suggestion connects Tocharian A/B kip/kwīpe (“genitals, female pudenda”), for a hypothetical Indo-European *gʰwíbʰ- (“pudenda”).[1][2] Another suggestion connects Old English wǣfan (“wrap, clothe”), Old Norse vífa (“wrap, veil”) for a suggested original motive of "married woman wearing a scarf".

Yet another suggestion connects Old High German weibon (“move to and fro”), Old Norse veifa (“swing, throw”), for a motive of "one who is moving busily; housekeeper, maidservant" (cf. German Weibel (“manservant, usher”)).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /waɪf/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪf

Noun

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wife (plural wives)

  1. A married woman, especially in relation to her spouse.
    The Fisherman and His Wife
    • 1558 April 29, Sir William Drurye, Will of Sir William Drurye [of Hawstede, Suffolk]‎[1], Prerogative Court of Canterbury, page 1:
      And I geue vnto the ſame Elizabeth my wif the ſparuers and hangings of the ſame twoo beddes vſuallye occupied, and hanging ouer and about the ſame twoo beddes […]
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.
    • 1952, P. G. Wodehouse, Big Business, in 'A Few Quick Ones', Everyman, London: 2009, p 127-8.
      All through Reginald's deeply moving performance she had sat breathless, her mind in a whirl and her soul stirred to her very depths. With each low note that he pulled up from the soles of his shoes she could feel the old affection and esteem surging back into her with a whoosh, and long before he had taken his sixth bow she knew ... that it would be madness to try to seek happiness elsewhere, particularly as the wife of a man with large ears and no chin, who looked as if he were about to start in the two-thirty race at Kempton Park.
    • 2014 March 3, Zoe Alderton, “‘Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion within the Harry Potter Fandom”, in Religions‎[2], volume 5, number 1, MDPI, →DOI, pages 219–257:
      Despite personal schisms and differences in spiritual experience, there is a very coherent theology of Snape shared between the wives. To examine this manifestation of religious fandom, I will first discuss the canon scepticism and anti-Rowling sentiment that helps to contextualise the wider belief in Snape as a character who extends beyond book and film.
  2. The female of a pair of mated animals.
    A new wife for the gander is introduced into the pen.
  3. (Scotland) Synonym of woman.[3]

Usage notes

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Although mostly used only humorously, wife can be used with the to indicate one's own wife, as in "I'd like to go, but the wife wants me home".

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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  • (antonym(s) of “married woman”): husband, were (noun) (obsolete)

Hypernyms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Sranan Tongo: wefi
  • → Japanese: ワイフ (waifu)
  • → Korean: 와이프 (waipeu)

Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

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Verb

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wife (third-person singular simple present wifes, present participle wifing, simple past and past participle wifed)

  1. (slang, African-American Vernacular) To marry (a woman).
    • 2004, “Guinnesses”, in Mm..Food, performed by MF Doom ft. Angelika & 4-IZE:
      Mentally scarred for life, love is war / And some chicks are just too hard to wife
    • 2009, Ashley Antoinette Coleman, JaQuavis Coleman, The Cartel‎[3], volume 1, →ISBN, page 106:
      Mecca knew she wasn't lying. She had the type of beauty that made niggas want to wife her.
    • 2010, Kenya K. Watkins, The Life You Choose‎[4], →ISBN, page 154:
      I thought that I was going to wife her, but because of the new news with my brother I couldn't do it.
    • 2016, Gayl Jones, The Healing‎[5], →ISBN:
      But I told you that you're not a wifeable woman, and I told him so, and he wanted to wife you anyway.

Synonyms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  • Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, →ISBN
  1. ^ Adams, Douglas Q. (1999) A dictionary of Tocharian B (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 10), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 238
  2. ^ Klaus Totila Schmit and Klaus Strunk, “Toch. B kwī̆pe ‘Schaum, Schande’, A kip ‘Schaum’ und germ. *wīƀa ‘Weib’”, Indogermanica Europaea: Festschrift für Wolfgang Meid (Graz: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Graz, 1989), pages 251-284
  3. ^ “wife”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

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Middle English

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Noun

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wife

  1. Alternative form of wyf

Scots

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Etymology

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From Middle English wyf (“woman, wife”), from Old English wīf (“woman”).

Noun

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wife (plural wifes)

  1. woman
  2. wife

Derived terms

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Derived terms
  • auld wife (“old woman; gossip; rotating chimney-cowl”)
  • fishwife (“fishwife, derogatory for a woman of coarse behaviour, temperament and vocabulary”)
  • guidwife (“wife, the mistress of a house, a landlady of an inn”)
  • henwife (“a woman in charge of hens”)
  • housewifeskip (“housewifery”)
  • selkie-wife (“female selkie, mermaid”, literally “female seal”)
  • spaewife (“female fortune teller”)
  • washerwife (“washerwoman”)
  • weedae-wife (“widow”)
  • weirdwife (“prophetess, fortune-teller”)
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