wife

Pronunciation

• IPA: /waɪf/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wif, inherited from Old English wīf (“woman; wife”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *wībą,^[2][3] a word of uncertain origin and disputed etymology,^[3][2][4] not found in Gothic.^[3] Its cognates include Old Frisian wīf, Old Saxon wīf, Dutch wijf, German Weib (“woman”) and Old Norse víf.^[2][3][4] Klein and Merriam-Webster connect it with Old Norse veipr (“head covering”), as if it meant “the veiled one”,^[5][6] and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate compares Tocharian B kwīpe.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A woman, in the general sense: Old English wīf, about 725.^[8] A woman joined to a man by marriage is from about 888.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the sense “female partner in a sanctioned union” arose in late Old English.^[3] The general sense “woman” survives in fishwife, midwife and old wives' tale,^[2][9][10] and in Scotland, where wife is still used of a middle-aged or elderly woman.^[4][10] In Middle English it also meant the mistress of a household, a sense surviving in goodwife and housewife.^[9] Trench saw it as one of many words, like Greek gynḗ and German Weib, that meant first “woman” and later “wife”.^[11] The verb “to take a wife” is from 1387, rare beside wive.^[8][3] All the world and his wife, “everyone”, is first recorded in 1730.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English wīf, a woman.^[8]
• c. 888 – a married woman.^[8]
• 14th century – mistress of a household.^[9]
• 1387 – verb, to marry.^[8]
• 1730 – all the world and his wife.^[10]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A woman joined to a man in marriage; a female spouse.
2. (archaic, Scotland) A woman, especially a middle-aged or elderly one.

Word family

• wifehood
• wifeless
• wifedom
• wifelessness
• farmwife
• wifelike

Related words

• wive
• woman
• midwife
• housewife
• fishwife
• husband

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker