wyf

Middle English

Alternative forms

• wife, wif, wiff, wiffe, wijf, wive, wyfe, wyff, wyve

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wiːf/, /wif/
• Rhymes: -iːf

Noun

wyf (plural wyfes or wyves or wyve)

1. woman, female human
2. wife, female spouse
   • ca. 1380: It cam in cuppemele — this craft my wif used! — William Langland, Piers Plowman
   • ca. 1380, — Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Merchant's Tale

     That in a morwe unto this May saith he
     Rys up, my wif, my love, my lady fre
     

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1474, Caxton, Game and Playe of the Chesse‎^[1]:

     In lyke wyse as democreon the philosophre put out his owen eyen be cause he wold not see that no good myght come to the euyll and vicyous peple wyth out right And also defortes the philosophre as he went toward his deth / his wyf that folowed after hym saide that he was dampned to deth wrongfully / than he answerd and sayd to her / holde thy peas and be styll / hit is better and more merytorye to dye by a wronge and unrightfull Jugement / than that I had deseruyd to dye.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. The leading woman of a household; a matriarch.
4. A female animal, especially one mating.
5. A concubine.

Antonyms

• wer (with respect to gender)

Related terms

• wyfles
• wyfly

Descendants

• English: wife (see there for further descendants)
• Scots: wife

References

• “wīf, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-08.

Welsh

Alternative forms

• (literary) ydwyf
• (colloquial) dw, rw, w, (neologism) rydw

Pronunciation

• (North Wales, standard, colloquial) IPA^(key): /uːɨ̯v/
• (South Wales, standard, colloquial) IPA^(key): /ʊi̯v/
  • (South Wales, colloquial) IPA^(key): /iːv/
• Rhymes: -ʊɨ̯v

Verb

wyf

1. (literary) first-person singular present progressive of bod