wife
/wæf/ noun, verb
Forms wives wifes wifing wifed
- noun A married woman, especially in relation to her spouse. “The Fisherman and His Wife”
- noun The female of a pair of mated animals. “A new wife for the gander is introduced into the pen.”
- noun (Scotland, otherwise puristic) Synonym of woman.
- verb (colloquial, originally African-American Vernacular) To marry (a woman).
Synonyms
little woman woman ball and chain better half boss bride dutch 'er indoors frow geezer her indoors lady little lady memsahib missus old lady old woman trouble trouble and strife wifekin married woman
Antonyms
Etymology
Inherited 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; woman”), North Frisian wuf, wüf (“wife, woman”), Saterland Frisian Wieuw (“woman; wife; female”), West Frisian wiif (“wife; woman”), Cimbrian baibe, baip (“wife; woman”), Dutch wijf (“woman; female”), German Weib (“woman; wife; female”), German Low German Wiev (“woman; female”), Mòcheno baib (“woman”), Vilamovian bow (“wife; woman”), Yiddish ווײַב (vayb, “wife; woman”) Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish viv (“wife; woman”), Faroese vív (“wife; woman”), Icelandic víf (“wife; 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”).
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 weibōn (“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”)).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A woman; an adult female; --now used in literature only in certain compounds and phrases, as alewife, fishwife, goodwife, and the like. " Both men and wives." Piers Plowman.
- noun The lawful consort of a man; a woman who is united to a man in wedlock; a woman who has a husband; a married woman; --correlative of husband. " The husband of one wife." 1 Tin. iii. 2.
Etymology [OE. wif, AS. wif; akin to OFries. & OS. wif, D. wijf, G. weib, OHG. wib, Icel. vif, Dan. viv; and perhaps to Skr. vip excited, agitated, inspired, vip to tremble, L. vibrare to vibrate, E. vibrate. Cf. Tacitus, [" Germania" 8]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “wife”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details