wife

English Online Dictionary. What means wife‎? What does wife mean?

English

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”), 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”). 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”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /waɪf/
• Rhymes: -aɪf

Noun

wife (plural wives)

2. A married woman, especially in relation to her spouse.
   • 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.
3. The female of a pair of mated animals.

4. (Scotland, puristic elsewhere) Synonym of woman.

Usage notes

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

• (married woman): little woman (slang)
• See also Thesaurus:wife

Antonyms

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

Hypernyms

• better half, life partner, partner, significant other, spouse, wedder

Derived terms

Descendants

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

Translations

See also

• uxorial

Verb

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).

Synonyms

• wive

Translations

See also

• wife on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• English terms starting with “wife”

References

• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “WIFE”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.

Anagrams

• fiew

Middle English

Noun

wife

1. Alternative form of wyf

Old English

Noun

wīfe

1. dative singular of wīf

Scots

Etymology

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

Noun

wife (plural wifes)

1. woman
2. wife

Derived terms