wifen.

Brit.

/wʌɪf/, U.S.

/waɪf/

Inflections: Plural wives

/waɪvz/.

Forms: 1. Singular. a. early Old English uiif, early Old English wiib (Kentish), Old English uif (Northumbrian), Old English–Middle English wiif, Old English–1600s wif, Old English (rare)–1600s wyf, Middle English vif, Middle English vijfe, Middle English vyf, Middle English vyfe, Middle English weife, Middle English weyfe, Middle English whif, Middle English whife, Middle English whyfe, Middle English wijf, Middle English wyefe, Middle English wyȝffe, Middle English wyif, Middle English wyiff, Middle English wyyf, Middle English wyyfe, Middle English (1500s in derivatives) wyve, Middle English (1500s–1700s in compounds and derivatives) 1800s– wive (now regional), Middle English–1500s weyffe, Middle English–1500s whyffe, Middle English–1500s wyef, Middle English–1500s wyue, Middle English–1500s (1600s in compounds and derivatives) wiue, Middle English–1600s wief, Middle English–1600s wiefe, Middle English–1600s wieffe, Middle English–1600s wiff, Middle English–1600s wiffe, Middle English–1600s wyfe, Middle English–1600s wyff, Middle English–1600s wyffe, Middle English– wife, late Middle English wyse (transmission error), 1500s wieff; Scottish pre-1700 uayff, pre-1700 uyfe, pre-1700 veif, pre-1700 veife, pre-1700 veiff, pre-1700 vif, pre-1700 vife, pre-1700 viff, pre-1700 viffe, pre-1700 vyf, pre-1700 vyfe, pre-1700 vyff, pre-1700 vyffe, pre-1700 vyif, pre-1700 vyiff, pre-1700 waif, pre-1700 wayf, pre-1700 wayfe, pre-1700 wayffe, pre-1700 wef, pre-1700 weife, pre-1700 wif, pre-1700 wiff, pre-1700 wijf, pre-1700 wive, pre-1700 wyef, pre-1700 wyeff, pre-1700 wyf, pre-1700 wyff, pre-1700 wyffe, pre-1700 wyif, pre-1700 wyiff, pre-1700 wyve, pre-1700 wywe, pre-1700 1700s– wife, pre-1700 1700s– wyfe, pre-1700 1800s wiffe, pre-1700 1900s– wief. b. Genitive.

α. early Old English wiifes, Old English uifes (Northumbrian), Old English (rare)–1600s wiues, Old English– wifes (now nonstandard), late Old English–1500s wyfes, early Middle English wifef (transmission error), Middle English wijfes, Middle English wiuis, Middle English wiwes, Middle English wyffis, Middle English wyffys, Middle English wyfis, Middle English wyuys, Middle English–1600s wives, Middle English–1600s wyues, Middle English–1600s wyves, 1500s wyvys, 1500s–1700s wive's, 1600s wif's, 1600s (1700s English regional) wiffes, 1700s– wife's; also Scottish pre-1700 viffis, pre-1700 vyffis, pre-1700 vyvys, pre-1700 wayfes, pre-1700 wif's, pre-1700 wife's, pre-1700 wifes, pre-1700 wiffes, pre-1700 wiffis, pre-1700 wifis, pre-1700 wifs, pre-1700 wiues, pre-1700 wives, pre-1700 wyfe’s, pre-1700 wyfes, pre-1700 wyffes, pre-1700 wyffis, pre-1700 wyfis, pre-1700 wyifes, pre-1700 wyifis, pre-1700 wyues, pre-1700 wyves, pre-1700 wyvis, pre-1700 wywys.

β. Middle English wife, Middle English wijf.

c. Dative. early Old English wiife, Old English uife (Northumbrian), Old English wyfe (rare), Old English–early Middle English wife, Old English (rare)–Middle English wiue, late Old English–Middle English wyue, early Middle English wifue, Middle English wifan (in copy of Old English charter), Middle English wiu (transmission error), Middle English wive, Middle English wyve. 2. Plural. a.

α. early Old English wiif, Old English–early Middle English wif, Old English (rare)–Middle English wyf.

β. Old English wifa (Northumbrian), Old English wifo (Northumbrian), early Middle English wifen, Middle English wive (dative), Middle English wyue.

γ. late Old English–1700s wifes, early Middle English wifess ( Ormulum), early Middle English wifues, Middle English vijfes, Middle English vyueȝ, Middle English wiffis, Middle English wifs, Middle English wifwes, Middle English wifys, Middle English wijfes, Middle English wijfs, Middle English wiuis, Middle English wius, Middle English wiuus, Middle English wiuys, Middle English wivus, Middle English wiwes, Middle English wyffis, Middle English wyfis, Middle English wyfs, Middle English wyuys, Middle English wyuyse, Middle English wywes, Middle English–1500s wifis, Middle English–1500s wyfes, Middle English–1500s wyuis, Middle English–1600s wiues, Middle English–1600s wyues, Middle English–1600s wyves, late Middle English wyse (transmission error, in a late copy), 1500s wiffes, 1500s wyffes, 1600s wiefs, 1600s wivs, 1600s– wives; Scottish pre-1700 vifis, pre-1700 vuifes, pre-1700 vyffis, pre-1700 vyfues, pre-1700 vyues, pre-1700 vyuis, pre-1700 wieffis, pre-1700 wiffes, pre-1700 wiffis, pre-1700 wifis, pre-1700 wifs, pre-1700 wiues, pre-1700 wiwys, pre-1700 wyfes, pre-1700 wyffeis, pre-1700 wyffes, pre-1700 wyffis, pre-1700 wyfis, pre-1700 wyiffis, pre-1700 wyifis, pre-1700 wyues, pre-1700 wyuis, pre-1700 wyves, pre-1700 wyvis, pre-1700 wywis, pre-1700 wywys, pre-1700 1700s– wives, pre-1700 1900s– wifes.

b. Genitive.

α. early Old English wiifa, Old English–early Middle English wifa, early Middle English wifue, early Middle English wiwa, Middle English wife, Middle English wiue, Middle English wyne (transmission error).

β. Old English wifana (Northumbrian), early Middle English wifuene, Middle English wiuen, Middle English wiuene, Middle English wivene, Middle English wyuen, Middle English wyuene, Middle English wyueyn, Middle English wyven, Middle English wyvene.

γ. early Middle English ȝiues (transmission error), early Middle English wifess ( Ormulum), Middle English wiuis, Middle English wyuys, Middle English–1600s wiues, Middle English– wives (now nonstandard), 1500s–1600s wyues, 1500s–1600s wyves, 1700s– wives'; also Scottish pre-1700 wifes, pre-1700 wiffes, pre-1700 wiffis, pre-1700 wiues, pre-1700 wives, pre-1700 wyfes, pre-1700 wyffis, pre-1700 wyves.

δ. early Middle English wivenes- (in compounds).

Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.

Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian wīf woman, married woman (West Frisian wiif ), Old Dutch wīf woman, female spouse (Middle Dutch wijf woman, married woman, Dutch wijf woman, female (now chiefly derogatory)), Old Saxon wīf woman, married woman (Middle Low German wīf ), Old High German wīb woman, female, married woman (Middle High German wīp woman, female, married woman (also with pejorative connotations), German Weib woman, female (now chiefly derogatory)), Old Icelandic víf (in poetry) woman (Icelandic víf ), Old Swedish vif woman, married woman (Swedish viv , now archaic), Old Danish wiff woman, married woman (Danish viv , now archaic), of unknown origin. Compare woman n.History in Germanic. This word is not attested in Gothic (which uses a derivative of the base of quean n. in the sense ‘woman’ and of queen n. in the sense ‘married woman’) and has no secure cognates outside Germanic. It is generally accepted that the primary sense of the Germanic noun was ‘woman’ (without reference to marital status), with more specific use of a married woman arising later as a secondary development, although both senses are attested from the earliest stages of each of the Germanic languages, and in many cases it is unclear from the context which of the two is intended. Compare similar use of Old English wer to denote both ‘man’ and ‘husband’ (see were n.¹). In Dutch and German, pejorative use appears to reflect semantic restriction arising from the increasing predominance of other words in the core senses ‘woman’ and ‘married woman’, especially Dutch vrouw , German Frau (see frow n. and frau n., respectively). Compare the semantic development of quean n. in English. Further etymology. Several phonologically plausible suggestions have been made as to the further etymology of this word, connecting it variously with e.g.: (i) an ablaut variant of the Indo-European base of Old English wǣfan to clothe (see weve v.²; compare the prefixed verb bewǣfan to cover, especially with a garment, to wrap around, to clothe: see biweve v.¹), with allusion to the custom in early Germanic societies for married women to wear the hair covered; (ii) the Indo-European base of Old High German weibōn to vacillate, fluctuate, move hither and thither (see waive v.²), with allusion either to the role of women as active workers in the home and on the land, or to a swaying gait held to be characteristic of adult females, (iii) the Indo-European base of Tocharian A kip , Tocharian B kwīpe shame, modesty, also genitals. However, all of these suggestions adduce semantic developments that cannot be substantiated by the evidence available. An etymological connection with the base of weave v.¹ has also been suggested, on the grounds of archaeological, historical, and lexical evidence that the production of textiles was strongly associated with women in Germanic societies; compare e.g. Old English spinelhealf (lit. ‘spindle side’) in sense ‘female line of descent’, beside wīfhealf , wīfhand . Perhaps compare also friðuwebbe (lit. ‘peace weaver’), used in heroic verse as an epithet of the female partner in a dynastic marriage (although contrast the corresponding masculine form friðuwebba , used of an angel). However, such a derivation presents phonological difficulties. For further discussion of many of the theories proposed, see D. E. Baron Gram. & Gender (1986) 34–7. Form history. In Old English usually a strong neuter (with unchanged nominative and accusative plural); analogical weak plural forms are attested in Northumbrian Old English and (especially in the genitive) in Middle English (see Forms 2aβ. , 2bβ. ); the plural in -s is already attested in occasional use in late Old English and becomes the norm in Middle English. The rare early Middle English genitive plural form wivenes- (see Forms 2bδ. ; one isolated attestation: see quot. a1300 at wiven adj.) shows double plural marking. The stem-final inherited voiced fricative was devoiced word-finally in Old English, but voicing was preserved before the vowel of the inflectional endings (although the consonant is spelt f in both positions). The resulting variation in the paradigm is continued in modern standard English in the distinction between the stem forms of the singular and plural, but not in the modern genitive singular form.

I. A woman considered without reference to marital status, and related senses.

1. A woman. Cf. wifie n. 2. Now chiefly Scottish.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > woman > [noun]

wifeeOE

womaneOE

womanOE

queanOE

brideOE

viragoc1000

to wifeOE

burdc1225

ladyc1225

carlinec1375

stotc1386

marec1387

pigsneyc1390

fellowa1393

piecec1400

femalea1425

goddessa1450

fairc1450

womankindc1450

fellowessa1500

femininea1513

tega1529

sister?1532

minikinc1540

wyec1540

placket1547

pig's eye1553

hen?1555

ware1558

pussy?a1560

jade1560

feme1566

gentlewoman1567

mort1567

pinnacea1568

jug1569

rowen1575

tarleather1575

mumps1576

skirt1578

piga1586

rib?1590

puppy1592

smock1592

maness1594

sloy1596

Madonna1602

moll1604

periwinkle1604

Partlet1607

rib of man1609

womanship?1609

modicum1611

Gypsy1612

petticoata1616

runniona1616

birda1627

lucky1629

she-man1640

her1646

lost rib1647

uptails1671

cow1696

tittup1696

cummer17..

wife1702

she-woman1703

person1704

molly1706

fusby1707

goody1708

riding hood1718

birdie1720

faggot1722

piece of goods1727

woman body1771

she-male1776

biddy1785

bitch1785

covess1789

gin1790

pintail1792

buer1807

femme1814

bibi1816

Judy1819

a bit (also bundle) of muslin1823

wifie1823

craft1829

shickster?1834

heifer1835

mot1837

tit1837

Sitt1838

strap1842

hay-bag1851

bint1855

popsy1855

tart1864

woman's woman1868

to deliver the goods1870

chapess1871

Dona1874

girl1878

ladykind1878

mivvy1881

dudess1883

dudette1883

dudine1883

tid1888

totty1890

tootsy1895

floozy1899

dame1902

jane1906

Tom1906

frail1908

bit of stuff1909

quim1909

babe1911

broad1914

muff1914

manhole1916

number1919

rossie1922

bit1923

man's woman1928

scupper1935

split1935

rye mort1936

totsy1938

leg1939

skinny1941

Richard1950

potato1957

scow1960

wimmin1975

womyn1975

womxn1991

society > society and the community > social class > the common people > [noun] > one of the common people > woman

wifeeOE

woman1458

Tib1533

roturière1753

commoneress1791

eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) iv. xxiv. 332 Hegiu.., seo ærest wiifa [L. feminarum] is sægd in Norðanhymbra mægðe, þæt heo munuchade & haligryfte onfenge.

OE Blickling Homilies 5 Seo geofu wæs broht for þære synne þæs ærestan wifes.

OE Ælfric Homily: De Duodecim Abusivis (Corpus Cambr. 178) in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 300 Wisdom gerist werum & wifum forþam seo sidefulnyss gescylt hi wið unþeawas.

?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 124 Sein Iohan þebaptiste bi hwam vre lauerd seide...bimong nane wiues bearn ne ras nan betere.

c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 755 Þa scipen to-draȝen & þa wif [c1300 Otho wimmen] drenchen.

c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) 1713 Loke nou, hw god helpen kan O mani wise wif and man.

c1330 (?a1300) Guy of Warwick (Auch.) p. 400 Now may me rewe al mi liue. That euer was y born o wiue, Wayle-way þat stounde!

c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Miller's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 155 The wyues of the parisshe.

c1480 (a1400) St. Mary of Egypt 1067 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 327 I coniure þe, þat it, þat þu has hard of me,..þat þu tel nothyre to man na vyf.

a1500 (c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Nero) vi. l. 2235 Þat man is noucht born of wiff Off powar to reff me my lif.

1526 Bible (Tyndale) Rev. xvii. 6 I sawe the wyfe dronke with the bloud of saynctes.

c1563 Jack Juggler sig. C.iii Then came I by a wife that did costerds sell.

1570 R. Sempill Regentis Trag. (single sheet) The wyfis that fostred ȝow.

a1628 J. Carmichaell Coll. Prov. in Scots (1957) 96 Quhair there is wyves, there are there words.

1721 A. Ramsay Poems I. 100 The Wives came furth, and up they rest him, And fand Life in the Lown.

1794 Har'st Rig lviii. 21 The Embrugh wives them a' exceed For sad mislear'd ill words indeed!

1859 Ld. Tennyson Guinevere in Idylls of King 228 She..shuddered, as the village wife who cries ‘I shudder, some one steps across my grave.’

1891 Allan's Tyneside Songs (rev. ed.) 550 He went reet ower intiv a basket of eggs and biscuits belangin' tiv an au'd wife.

1934 J. Buchan Free Fishers ii. 39 ‘He is tied to the petticoat tails of a daft wife.’ ‘A wife! He is married then..?’ ‘No, no. There's no marriage. I used our vernacular term for the other sex when we would speak of it without respect.’

1981 A. Gray Lanark xiii. 132 The village school..had..a kitchen where a wife from the village made flavourless meals.

2004 S. Blackhall Wizard o North 3 A hurricane's blootered Dunoon! Ilkie reeftap blew aff o the toon! They flew past Big Ben at a quarter tae ten, Wi a wife in an auld flannel goon!

2015 C. MacDonald in Lallans 87 74 The skrankie wee wife wi the dry hair an lang drab coat.

2. The female head of a household; (also) the landlady of an inn. Now chiefly in wife of the house (in later use more likely to be understood as sense 4). Cf. goodwife n., housewife n.In quot. OE in the context of distinguishing a housewife's legal responsibilities from her husband's.In quot. c1425: a woman in respect of her ability to manage a household. Cf. husband n. 6.

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > drink > providing or serving drink > [noun] > inn or tavern keeping > innkeeper

tappera1000

tapsterc1000

wifeOE

taverner1340

gannekerc1380

tippler1396

alewifec1400

vintnerc1430

alehouse-keeperc1440

ale-taker1454

innholder1463

cellarman1547

ale draper?1593

pint pot1598

ale-man1600

nick-pot1602

tavern-keeper1611

beer-monger1622

kaniker1630

ordinary keeper1644

padrone1670

tap-lash?1680

ale-dame1694

public house keeper1704

bar-keeper1712

publican1728

tavern-man1755

Boniface1795

knight of the spigot1821

licensed victualler1824

thermopolite1832

bar-keep1846

saloon-keeper1849

posadero1851

Wirt1858

bung1860

changer1876

patron1878

bar-tender1883

soda-jerker1883

bar steward1888

pub-keeper1913

society > inhabiting and dwelling > providing with dwelling > [noun] > with temporary accommodation > innkeeping > innkeeper or hotelier

wifeOE

hostc1290

hostessc1290

hosteler1350

innkeeperc1449

innholder1463

wardin1493

hosterc1503

hostler?a1505

landlady1654

landlord1724

hoteliera1738

aubergiste1766

roadsider1826

khanji1839

motelier1959

OE Laws of Cnut (Nero) ii. lxxvi. §1. 362 Butan hit [sc. forstolen þingc] under þæs wifes cæglocan gebroht wære, si heo clæne, ac þære cægean heo sceal weardian.

c1275 (?c1250) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) (1935) l. 1585 Þe lauerd..Fareþ ut on þare beire nede An is þat gode wif un bliþe For hire lauerdes houd siþe.

c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Canon's Yeoman's Tale (Ellesmere) (1875) l. 1015 A preest..Which was so plesaunt and so seruysable Vn-to the wyf where as he was at table That she wolde suffre hym no thyng for to paye.

c1425 How Good Wife taught her Daughter (Huntington) (1948) l. 200 Be þou wise wif of þin owen.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) 1 Kings xvii. 17 The sonne of the wife of y^e house was sicke.

1560 H. Machyn Diary (1848) 238 The wyff of the Bell in Gracyous-strett.

1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry ii. f. 48^v The olde husbandes..vsed..to iudge, that where they founde the Garden out of order, the wyfe of the house..was no good huswyfe.

1620 Hist. Frier Rush sig. B4^v He called the wife of the house and said: Mistresse, I pray you fill a pottle of wine.

1662 J. Chandler tr. J. B. van Helmont Oriatrike xxvi. 281 The wife of the Inn laid that woman on a table, with her face placed downwards.

1700 C. Leigh Nat. Hist. Lancs. i. i. 7 Near to him was sitting the Wife of the House, with a little Child upon her Knee.

1763 ‘T. Insulanus’ Treat. Second Sight sig. K2^v The wife of the house, her daughter and servant, are still in life.

1811 F. Fernandez First Dict. Eng. & Spanish Patrona, the wife of the house.

1892 Indiana (Pa.) Progress 8 June The neighbors were gathered and stood around the wife of the house, who was insensible as from some great calamity.

1942 B. Hutchison Unknown Country xiv. 285 The wife of the house wore her hair in the latest fashion, with a snood to support the curls.

1992 R. M. Karras in G. Pálsson From Sagas to Society xvii. 297 The implication is clear that women servants would be considered legitimate prey sexually, and that no one would object to it very much (as they certainly would in the case of the rape of the wife of the house).

2011 A. Patterson in G. Moore Mummer's Wife Pref. 5 We come to know the reading matter of the wife of the household, and its effect upon her expectations of life.

3. Chiefly with preceding qualifying word. A woman engaged in the sale or manufacture of a specified commodity. Now archaic except in established compounds.alewife, apple-wife, dairy-wife, fishwife, oyster wife, pudding-wife, etc.: see the first element.In quot. 1287 in a surname.

ΚΠ

1287 in W. Hudson Leet Jurisdict. Norwich (1892) 6 (MED) Gundreda le puddingwyf.

c1400 W. Langland Piers Plowman (Cambr. Dd.3.13) (1873) C. ix. l. 330 Ale-wiuys [c1400 Huntington HM 137 Thei wolde non halpeny ale in none wyse drynke Bote of þe best and Brounest þat brewesters sellen].

?a1450 in Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum (1817) I. 443 (MED) Sche shall pay for a gown to her grome coke and her poding wief by the yere ij s.

c1500 Debate Carpenter's Tools in Rev. Eng. Stud. (1987) 38 456 (MED) He wyll not the..He wones to nyȝe the ale-wyffe.

?c1565 Iacke Iugeler (new ed.) sig. Ciii Then came I by a wife that did costerds sell And cast downe hir basket fayre and well.

1583 C. Hollyband Campo di Fior 111 There is a certeine herbe-wife, Of whom if you do buye.

1625 F. Bacon Apophthegmes §54. 73 Strawberrie wiues, that laid two or three great strawberries at the mouth of their pot, and all the rest were little ones.

1631 Act of Common Council City of London 20 July in Jrnls. (Corporation of London) (London Metropolitan Archives: COL/CC/01) XXXV. f. 332 Oyster wives, earbe wives Tripe wives.

?1720 (title) Elegy on the much lamented death of Merry Maggie Wilson, poultry-wife in Edinburgh.

1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Wife, it is used for a woman of low employment.

1818 J. Keats Dawlish Fair in Let. 25 Mar. (1958) I. 256 Where Gingerbread Wives have a scanty sale.

1825 J. T. Brockett Gloss. North Country Words Wife, a woman, whether married or not. ‘An apple wife’,—‘a fish wife’,—‘A tripe wife’.

1908 Chautauquan Oct. 240 Here the plump and soft-hearted cheese-wife is entertaining an admirer.

1994 D. Kovacs tr. Aristophanes in Euripidea 99 Poets ought not to engage in insult like bread-wives.

II. A married woman, and related senses.

(a) The (or a) female partner in a marriage; esp. a married woman considered in relation to her spouse. Used exclusively with reference to mixed-sex marriages until the late 20th cent., and in this context taken as correlative to husband.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife

wifeeOE

womanc1275

peerc1330

spousessc1384

ladyc1390

good lady1502

girl?a1513

spousage1513

little lady1523

the weaker vessel1526

companion1535

wedlock1566

Mrs1572

dame1574

rib?1590

feme1595

fathom1602

feme covert1602

shrew1606

wife of one's bosom1611

kickie-wickiea1616

heifer1616

sposa1624

bosom-partner1633

goodwife1654

little woman1715

squaw1767

the Mrs1821

missus1823

maw1826

lady wife1840

tart1864

mistress1873

mama1916

ball and chain1921

trouble and strife1929

old boot1958

eOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Otho) (2009) I. vi. 402 Hu ne liofað þin wif [eac], þ[æ]s ilcan Simaches dohtor?

OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) i. 185 Ic wille gehealdan þe ænne & þin wif, & þine þry suna..& heora þreo wif.

a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 49 Riche men..þe habbeð..feire wifes and feire children.

c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 13 Noe & Sem Iaphet & Cham. & heore four wiues [c1300 Otho wifes].

a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 1219 God him bad is wiues tale Listen.

a1375 (c1350) William of Palerne (1867) l. 242 My menskful moder is his meke wiue.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 918 Þou, man,..has vndertaken þi wijf red [Gött. þi wiues rede].

a1475 J. Fortescue Governance of Eng. (Laud) (1885) 114 Thair wyfes and childeren.

a1500 ( J. Yonge tr. Secreta Secret. (Lamb.) 192 The loue that a vif shold haue to hir spous.

1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue ii. viii. sig. Kii^v A good wife makth a good husbande (they saie).

c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) ii. 19 Thou sal spouse ane vyfe, bot ane vthir sal tak hyr fra the.

1580 J. Hay Certaine Demandes conc. Christian Relig. & Discipline 71 Ane of Iacobs vyfues.

1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 16 Slaves unto their wives goods.

1628 E. Coke 1st Pt. Inst. Lawes Eng. i. 112 A man may not grant nor giue his tenements to his Wife during the couerture, for that his Wife and hee bee but one person in the Law.

1628 A. Baillie True Information Vnhallowed Ofspring i. vii. 23 Their vuifes & bairnes.

a1635 W. Pole Coll. Descr. Devon (1791) i. 166 S^r. Thomas Beamont..maried 2 wiefs.

1637 Bk. Common Prayer Church of Scotl. Visitation of Sick sig. Q2^v Visit him, O Lord, as thou didst visit Peters wives mother.

1722 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. (1906) VII. 382 He..was drown'd, in the same Place where his Wive's first Husband had been drowned.

1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones III. ix. vii. 363 She past for that Gentleman's Wife,..and yet..there were some Doubts concerning the Reality of their Marriage.

a1790 B. Franklin Autobiogr. (1981) i. 5 My Father..carried his Wife with three Children unto New England.

1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. I. 158 He had never been married; but he was still on the look-out for a wife with money.

1888 M. F. B. Leighton Husband & Wife I. v. 57 She studied his character, and anticipated his wishes; she was wife, idol, friend, in one.

1924 M. B. Lowndes Terriford Myst. vi. 68 She was the most devoted and generous-natured of wives to me.

1946 New Eng. Q. 19 259 The Prophet..in his last years introduced plural or spiritual wives.

1981 Observer 28 June (Colour Suppl.) 34 What he [sc. Prince Charles] needed most, for the benefit of his public popularity,..was a wife.

2001 Advocate 19 June 10/3 On weekends McDevitt-Pugh cycles along the canals and dikes of the Netherlands with her wife and stepson.

2011 M. Joiner Too Much of Good Woman 205 I opened the front door to see my wife..locked in a passionate kiss with another man.

(b) With preceding qualifying word. A wife (sense 4a(a)) defined by her spouse's occupation, esp. one who fulfils official expectations of the role. Frequently with reference to the military, as navy wife, service wife. See also army wife at army n. Compounds 1e.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > wife of one in specific occupation

to wifeOE

wife1866

1866 Once a Week 24 Nov. 576/2 I could see (what one likes to see in all military wives) that Garnett was, in her opinion, the hero of every campaign in which he had served.

1896 C. King (title) An army wife.

1944 Mich. Alumnus 8 Jan. 215/2 Several of the units now on the Campus have strict rules relative to the coming to Ann Arbor of these service wives.

1981 P. McCutchan Shard calls Tune ii. 18 Beth had been a police wife..and a Foreign Office Security wife... She knew she mustn't ask where Simon was going.

2014 T. Graham et al. Search for HMAS Sydney i. 25/2 Her life as a naval wife lay before her.

b. A married woman (or a woman who has been married) distinguished from an unmarried woman or girl, esp. as having had sexual experience. Usually contrasted with maid, virgin, etc. Now archaic and historical.

ΚΠ

OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) iii. 19 Crist næs na of wife acenned, ac wæs of mædene.

OE Poenitentiale Pseudo-Egberti (Laud) ii. xiii. 23 Gif hwa mid his ofercræfte wif oððe mæden neadinga nimð to unrihthæmede hire unwilles, beo he amansumad.

c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 2102 Þeȝȝ wenndenn þatt ȝho wære wif Acc ȝho wass maȝȝdenn clene.

c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 2 Herknet to me, gode men, Wiues, maydnes, and alle men, Of a tale þat ich you wile telle.

a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vi. l. 572 (MED) Ther was no wif ne maiden there..Whom thei ne token to defoule.

?a1475 (a1396) W. Hilton Scale of Perfection (Harl. 6579) i. lx. f. 41 (MED) Prest, clerk, or lewede man, wydue, wyf, or mayden.

1543 J. Bale Yet Course at Romyshe Foxe sig. Kviii Yf ye make a dyfference betwyne wyues and vyrgyns.

1682 T. D'Urfey Royalist ii. ii. 18 Madam; Answer me this Queston? Are you Widow, Wife, or Maid?

1736 Gentleman's Mag. Apr. 221/2 Topaz rare, or diamond fair..At balls display'd, on wife or maid: Thou giv'st to charms a beauteous air.

1833 Waltzburg I. viii. 126 No female, be she maiden or wife, ever enters these secluded walls.

1902 Smart Set Mar. 57 Was she maiden, was she wife, was she wanton, or bold, or shy?

1996 O. H. Hufton Prospect before Her 40 In Protestant literature..chastity was exalted as the most important attribute of the virtuous woman, whether maid, wife or widow.

c. figurative in religious contexts. A person or thing (as the Church, a soul, etc.) regarded as symbolically married to God or Christ; (occasionally also) Christ regarded as the spouse of a soul.

ΚΠ

OE Ælfric Homily (Trin. Cambr. B.15.34) in B. Assmann Angelsächsische Homilien u. Heiligenleben (1889) 76 Þæt wif is her gecweden eall Cristes gelaþung on gastlicum andgite, þe is his agen bryd.

c1350 Apocalypse St. John: A Version (Harl. 874) (1961) 161 His wijf haþ dressed hir..Þe spouse of þe lombe bitokeneþ holy chirche.

c1400 (?c1380) Pearl l. 790 Þe Lambez vyuez in blysse we bene.

a1425 (a1400) in M. Day Wheatley MS (1921) 96 Ihesu.., Teche my soule þat is thi wyfe To loue best..the.., here dere housebonde.

a1475 Sidrak & Bokkus (Lansd.) (1998) I. l. 2335 Mannes soule is Goddes wyf.

1641 J. May Epaphras 11 Obedience..makes the soule the wife of its Saviour.

1697 W. Russel Vindic. of Baptized Churches vii. 109 These are the marks of false Churches, and not of the true Spouse and Wife of Christ.

1787 Hist. Worthy Martyr J. Bradford 67 Alphon. What is the Church? Brad. Christ's wife, the chair and seat of virtue.

1828 A. Boniface Dictionnaire français-anglais et anglais-français I. 490/1 The nuns are the wives of Christ.

1917 Herald of Gospel Liberty 29 Mar. 302/1 If Christ is the husband, and the Church the wife, His name must be hers.

2009 C. Christiansen in F. Becker & P. W. Geissler Aids & Relig. Pract. in Afr. 108 The pastor gave her a golden ring to wear on her ring finger. ‘It was a wonderful Sunday when I became a wife of Christ,’ Proscovia said.

5. A woman who has a long-term sexual relationship with a man to whom she is not married; a mistress; a concubine.Now only with preceding modifying word. See also field wife n. (b) at field n.¹ Compounds 5, liberty-wife n. at liberty n.¹ Compounds 2.In early use chiefly with reference to the concubines of priests. In early use the marital status of these was still a matter of dispute; compare quot. lOE.

ΘΚΠ

society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > [noun] > illicit intimacy > person > a mistress

chevesea700

wifeOE

bed-sister1297

concubine1297

leman1297

file1303

speciala1400

womanc1400

chamberer?a1425

mistress?a1439

cousin1470

doxy?1515

doll1560

pinnacea1568

nobsya1575

lier-by1583

sweetheart1589

she-friend1600

miss1606

underput1607

concupy1609

lig-by1610

factoress1611

leveret1617

night-piece1621

belly-piece1632

dolly1648

lie-bya1656

madamc1660

small girl1671

natural1674

convenient1676

lady of the lake1678

pure1688

tackle1688

sultana1703

kind girl1712

bosom-slave1728

pop1785

chère amie1792

fancy-woman1819

hetaera1820

fancy-piece1821

poplolly1821

secondary wife1847

other woman1855

fancy-girl1892

querida1902

wifelet1983

OE Laws: Norðhymbra Preosta Lagu (Corpus Cambr.) lxi. 384 And we forbeodað on Godes forbode, þæt nan man na ma wifa næbbe buton i.

lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough contin.) anno 1129 Þa weorð hit eall of earcedæcnes wifes & of preostes wifes þet hi scolden hi forlæten be Sanctes Andreas messe.

c1275 Lutel Soth Serm. (Calig.) l. 49 in R. Morris Old Eng. Misc. (1872) 188 (MED) Alle prestes wifes, ich wot heo beoþ for-lore.

c1300 (c1250) Floris & Blauncheflur (Cambr.) (1966) l. 266 Ne bu his [sc. the Emir's] wif neure so schene, Bute o ȝer ne schal heo beon his Quene, þeȝ heo luue him ase hire lif, þat he nele habbe anoþer wif.

a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 8028 (MED) Y haue lyued a synful lyfe And haue be called a prestes wyfe.

?a1475 in C. D. Eckhardt Prophetia Merlini (1982) 80 (MED) In this king henryes tyme prestes paied a pension of gold..for to pardon hem of their wyfes.

1567 T. Stapleton Counterblast iii. xvi. f. 280^v Such as being Priestes kept whores and concubines, which you now call wyues. M. Horne, to saue your Madges poore honesty.

1679 Domestick Intelligence 2 Dec. He hath lived with a wife or woman for some years, by whom he hath had two or three children.

1847 H. S. Chapman Let. 24 Nov. in J. Miller Early Victorian N.Z. (1958) x. 141 Maori wives..the conventional name for a Maori mistress.

1915 Washington Post 17 Jan. 18/2 His ‘love wife’ will be acquitted, he is quoted as saying substantially, by his friend.

1991 Rolling Stone 28 Nov. 65/1 ‘Minor wives’—concubines, mistresses—are still a sign of status in Thai society.

2004 G. Jen Love Wife ix. 189 She was not even my grandfather's wife, exactly, but a love wife—a concubine—his favorite.

6. In extended use with reference to birds or other animals: a female that is mating or has mated with a male.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > family unit > [noun] > female > female mate

wifeOE

woman1577

mistress1692

OE tr. Medicina de Quadrupedibus (Vitell.) v. 250 Wif to geeacnigenne haran cyslybb feower penega gewæge syle on wine drincan þam wife of wife [L. feminae de femina; i.e. to the woman from a female hare] & þam were of were & þonne don hyra gemanan.

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xviii. lxxvi. 1229 Among cattes in tyme of loue is hard fightynge for wyues.

c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Nun's Priest's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 63 As Chauntecler among hise wyues alle Sat on his perche.

tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) i. l. 669 (MED) Fesauntis..first in Marche vppon they go Theyr wyuys.

1513 G. Douglas in tr. Virgil Æneid xii. Prol. 159 Phebus red fowle..Pykland his meyt..Hys wifis, Toppa and Pertelok, hym by.

1648 R. Herrick Hesperides sig. R5^v Cock calls his Wife his Hen.

1657 G. Thornley tr. Longus Daphnis & Chloe 125 The he-goats..every one had his own wives.

1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 450 Twitch'd from the perch, He gives the princely bird, with all his wives, To his voracious bag.

1838 Lett. from Madras (1843) 194 The monkeys were in a rage... The old father hunted his wife and children up the tree.

?1870 P. M. Duncan Transformations Insects xvi. 436 Wives appear to be at a premium amongst these spiders.

1887 Cent. Mag. Mar. 677/1 The song-birds..making the..wood merry with their carolings to the wives and younglings in the nests.

1917 P. MacGill Soldier Songs 68 And a robin sits by with a vigilant eye On a grim garden-spider's wife.

1963 F. Mowat Never cry Wolf ix. 91 His wife was equally memorable. A slim, almost pure-white wolf with a thick ruff around her face.

1979 M. M. Nice Research is Passion with Me 3 We believed him [sc. an Indigo Bunting] to be a bachelor until we happened upon the nest and thus discovered his plain brown wife.

a. In (esp. same-sex) relationships, other than marriage, in which the two partners are regarded as occupying roles analogous to those in a traditional mixed-sex marriage: the person assuming the role regarded as more stereotypically feminine, i.e. as being equivalent to that of the wife (sense 4a). Cf. husband n. 2b.Earliest with reference to the ‘marriages’ with male favourites allegedly entered into by some Roman emperors. Cf. husband n. 2b.

ΘΚΠ

the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual orientation > homosexuality > [noun] > a homosexual person > male > who takes on a more passive role

wife1549

whore1609

pogue1919

queen1919

old lady1937

she-male1952

1549 T. Cooper Lanquet's Epitome of Crons. iii. f. 99^v He [sc. Nero] toke in open mariage a boye of excellent fauour, named Sporus, and vsed hym as his wyfe.

1636 R. Basset tr. G. A. de Paoli Lives Rom. Emperors 181 Nero Caesar..had a Boy cut, as if hee would have transformed him into a Woman, and called him wife.

1692 O. Walker Greek & Rom. Hist. ii. xiii. 250 [Elagabalus] clothed himself like a Woman, was married to a vile Man, and used as his Wife.

1754 W. Hay Deformity 67 Silius was converted by the insatiable Messalina into a Husband: and Sporus by the Monster Nero into a Wife.

1838 Jackson's Oxf. Jrnl. 21 Apr. She [sc. a woman who has been passing as a married man] vehemently refuses to consent that any sum shall be set apart as a provision for her so-called wife.

1883 W. A. Hammond Sexual Impotence in Male i. 57 The one who was in this disgusting arrangement to act the part of ‘husband’ came to his ‘wife's’ bed and remained there during the night.

1942 Billboard 23 May 10/1 Sapiens, as the ‘wife’ [of Hippolyta], stays at home while his ‘husband’, as king, reigns.

1957 H. R. Danforth & J. D. Horan D.A.'s Man (1958) i. 3 He's got a new girl. His ‘wife’ went home last week.

1978 J. Hyams Pool xiii. 199 The group's leader..made his ‘wife’ head of production.

2000 C. Calhoun Feminism, Family, Politics of Closet (2002) iii. 66 Who among these women have the most power to represent..the lesbian—the feminine women (the wives) or the cross-dressed women (the husbands)?

2010 M. Kramer in S. Habib Islam & Homosexuality I. vii. 138 At his request, I was the husband and he was the wife.

b. Used to denote either partner in a (generally long-term) relationship between two women.Here referring to a relationship other than a marriage, or (in later use) to a relationship regardless of whether or not it is a marriage. For uses explicitly referring to women who are married to one another see sense 4a.

ΚΠ

1896 A. W. Grimké in G. Beemyn Queer Capital (2015) ii. 72 I hope beloved that in a few years you will come to me and be my love my wife!

1916 Harvard Advocate 25 Feb. 200/1 ‘You're a liar,’ said the girl calmly... ‘I'm that woman's wife, that's who I am.’

1993 K. Ainis in S. Pollack & D. D. Knight Contemp. Lesbian Writers U.S. 560 Jess Wells has been with her partner, Sharon, whom she calls her ‘wife’, since 1984.

2012 E. D. B. Riggle & S. S. Rostosky Positive View of LGBTQ vi. 83 A 33-year-old lesbian living in Colorado who has been with her wife for eight years shares how they have grown together during their relationship.

†8. Used as a term of affection for a close female friend (esp. of a man). Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > love > terms of endearment > [noun] > of or to a girl > used of or to female friend

wife1592

noona1975

unni1997

1592 in W. Greenwell Wills & Inventories Registry Durham (1860) II. 205 To Mrs. Clopton one old ryall, to hir daughter, my wiffe, Alice, one angell.

1601 J. Chamberlain Let. 27 May in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. (1898) Nov. 654/2 I came lately thence..about a match for my wife, which is since dispatcht with younge Gifford.

1692 H. N. Payne Let. 29 May in Navil Payn's Let. (1693) 8 My Love, Duty and Service too to you, your Good-sister, Brother, my Little Wife, James, Archibald, Mrs. Ann and Mrs. Lilias.

1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones VI. xvii. ii. 97 Her little Girl, whose Eyes were all over blubbered at the melancholy News she heard of Jones, who used to call her his little Wife .

1796 W. Cole Contradiction 119 Then Little Fred, said I, Mr Great-boots will be off—Take care of my little wife, your sister—Adieu!

1822 C. Lamb Let. 13 Nov. (1935) II. 347 This is a mere letter of business—so I will just send my love to my little wife at Versailles, to her dear mother, &c.

a. Something likened to a wife in some way, esp. in being a constant companion. Cf. Dutch wife n. at Dutch adj., n.¹, and adv. Compounds 2b. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > relationship > accompaniment > [noun] > that which accompanies

purtenancea1382

accessory1429

retinue?a1439

accessaryc1475

companion1533

annexe?1541

hanger-ona1555

supply1567

copemate1581

complement1586

fere1593

adjective1597

annexment1604

annexary1605

attendant1607

adherence1610

adjacent1610

wife1616

fellower1620

coincident1626

attendancy1654

associate1658

appanage1663

conjunct1667

perquisite1667

familiar1668

satellite1702

accompaniment1709

accompanying1761

side dish1775

obbligato1825

shadow1830

rider1859

gadget1917

society > authority > subjection > restraint or restraining > restraint depriving of liberty > binding or fettering > [noun] > bond(s) or fetter(s) or shackle(s) > for the feet or legs

copsa700

fetterc800

gyvec1275

bolt1483

boysc1485

hose-ring?1515

hopshacklea1568

gin?1587

leg ring1606

hamper1613

shacklock1613

wife1616

pedicle1628

leg iron1779

wife1811

leg lock1815

ankle ring1823

anklet1835

hopple1888

Oregon boot1892

1616 R. Sheldon Suruey Miracles Church of Rome i. 30 He [sc. a priest] affirmed himselfe, to be a married man; his meaning was, that his wife was his breuiarie; and that hee had beene married vnto it, twelue yeares.

1672 J. Evelyn tr. R. Rapin Of Gardens 50 Near Paris, where the rapid Sein do's glide, In a sub urban Villa did reside A single man; his Garden was his Wife.

1813 in J. G. Brighton Admiral of Fleet (1892) 45 He was proud, too, of his wooden wife, as he sometimes called his ship.

1859 Habits Good Society (new ed.) vii. 254 The pipe is the bachelor's wife.

2005 G. R. R. Martin Feast for Crows 37 Only when both edges [of the axe] were sharp enough to shave with did the captain lay his ash-and-iron wife down on the bed.

b. slang. A shackle for the leg; a leg iron. Cf. ball and chain n. 1. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > subjection > restraint or restraining > restraint depriving of liberty > binding or fettering > [noun] > bond(s) or fetter(s) or shackle(s) > for the feet or legs

copsa700

fetterc800

gyvec1275

bolt1483

boysc1485

hose-ring?1515

hopshacklea1568

gin?1587

leg ring1606

hamper1613

shacklock1613

wife1616

pedicle1628

leg iron1779

wife1811

leg lock1815

ankle ring1823

anklet1835

hopple1888

Oregon boot1892

1811 Lexicon Balatronicum Wife, a fetter fixed to one leg.

1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 195 Wife, the ball and chain used to prevent escape from a road or ‘chain’ gang.

10. Originally: †the red underwing moth, Catocala nupta (obsolete rare). In later use (with distinguishing word): either of two other North American underwing moths of the genus Catocala, C. muliercula (in full little wife) and C. palaeogama (in full oldwife underwing).

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Heterocera > [noun] > family Noctuidae > member of subfamily Catocalinae (underwing) > catocala nupta (red-underwing)

red underwing1720

bride1832

wife1832

1832 J. Rennie Conspectus Butterflies & Moths Brit. 99 The Wife (C. Nupta, Ochsenheimer) appears among willows the beginning of August.

1903 W. J. Holland Moth Bk. 267 Catocala muliercula..The Little Wife.

1906 W. T. M. Forbes Field Tables Lepidoptera 133 Orange spots on two rear joints below. Old-wife underwing. Catocala palæogama.

2008 M. Winn Central Park in Dark v. 104 We'd added two new underwing moths to our Central Park list: the oldwife underwing (Catocala palaeogama) and the clouded underwing (Catocala nebulosa).

2011 D. L. Wagner et al. Owlet Caterpillars Eastern North Amer. 109 (heading) Coloration is exceptionally variable across the group, which includes the Sweetfern Underwing..and The Little Wife (C. muliercula).

Phrases

P1.

a. to wife: as a wife, for a wife, so as to be one's wife. Frequently in to have (also hold) to wife: to have as one's wife, to be the husband of. Now archaic.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > woman > [noun]

wifeeOE

womaneOE

womanOE

queanOE

brideOE

viragoc1000

to wifeOE

burdc1225

ladyc1225

carlinec1375

stotc1386

marec1387

pigsneyc1390

fellowa1393

piecec1400

femalea1425

goddessa1450

fairc1450

womankindc1450

fellowessa1500

femininea1513

tega1529

sister?1532

minikinc1540

wyec1540

placket1547

pig's eye1553

hen?1555

ware1558

pussy?a1560

jade1560

feme1566

gentlewoman1567

mort1567

pinnacea1568

jug1569

rowen1575

tarleather1575

mumps1576

skirt1578

piga1586

rib?1590

puppy1592

smock1592

maness1594

sloy1596

Madonna1602

moll1604

periwinkle1604

Partlet1607

rib of man1609

womanship?1609

modicum1611

Gypsy1612

petticoata1616

runniona1616

birda1627

lucky1629

she-man1640

her1646

lost rib1647

uptails1671

cow1696

tittup1696

cummer17..

wife1702

she-woman1703

person1704

molly1706

fusby1707

goody1708

riding hood1718

birdie1720

faggot1722

piece of goods1727

woman body1771

she-male1776

biddy1785

bitch1785

covess1789

gin1790

pintail1792

buer1807

femme1814

bibi1816

Judy1819

a bit (also bundle) of muslin1823

wifie1823

craft1829

shickster?1834

heifer1835

mot1837

tit1837

Sitt1838

strap1842

hay-bag1851

bint1855

popsy1855

tart1864

woman's woman1868

to deliver the goods1870

chapess1871

Dona1874

girl1878

ladykind1878

mivvy1881

dudess1883

dudette1883

dudine1883

tid1888

totty1890

tootsy1895

floozy1899

dame1902

jane1906

Tom1906

frail1908

bit of stuff1909

quim1909

babe1911

broad1914

muff1914

manhole1916

number1919

rossie1922

bit1923

man's woman1928

scupper1935

split1935

rye mort1936

totsy1938

leg1939

skinny1941

Richard1950

potato1957

scow1960

wimmin1975

womyn1975

womxn1991

the world > relative properties > kind or sort > generality > [noun] > the generality > everyone

allOE

to wifeOE

everya1250

young and olda1400

everybodyc1405

all hands1655

tout le monde1825

society > faith > artefacts > consumables > candle or light > [noun] > maintained by married women

to wifeOE

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [phrase] > for or as one's wife

to wifeOE

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > wife of one in specific occupation

to wifeOE

wife1866

OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xiv. 4 Iohannes him sæde, nys þe alyfed hi to wife to hæbbenne [L. habere eam].

c1225 (?c1200) St. Margaret (Bodl.) (1934) 6 (MED) Ich hire wule habben & halden to wiue.

a1275 St. Margaret (Trin. Cambr.) l. 36 in A. S. M. Clark Seint Maregrete & Body & Soul (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Michigan) (1972) 15 Sone wolde þe sarezin habben hire to wiue.

c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 12815 He heo nabbe to wife.

a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 2147 Iosep to wiue his dowter nam.

a1350 in R. H. Robbins Hist. Poems 14th & 15th Cent. (1959) 26 (MED) Þou shalt me wedde & welde to wyf.

a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. l. 2686 (MED) This Steward..A lusti ladi hath to wyve.

1415 in J. B. Paul Registrum Magni Sigilli Scotorum (1882) II. 39/1 Huchon Fraser..God grantand, sal lede in to wyf Jonet of Fentoun.

c1440 (?a1400) Morte Arthure l. 3575 (MED) He has weddyde Waynore, and hyr to wyefe holdes.

c1450 (a1425) Metrical Paraphr. Old Test. (Selden) l. 9653 (MED) He toyȝt myght he hyre to wyfe win.

a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) I. vi. clxxxvii. f. cxiv/2 Thys kynge Edwarde had a noble woman to wyfe named Elgina of whom he receyued two sonnes.

1526 Bible (Tyndale) Mark xii. f. lxiij In the resurrecion then..whose wyfe shall she be of them? For seven had her to wyfe.

1588 R. Greene Pandosto sig. A3 This Pandosto had to Wife a Ladie called Bellaria.

1635 Relation of Maryland v. 28 He that would have a wife, treates with the father, or if he be dead, with the friend that takes care of her whom he desires to have to wife.

1645 J. Milton Il Penseroso in Poems 41 Who had Canace to wife.

1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World xiv. 388 Mr. Fitz-Gerald had in this time gotten a Spanish Mustesa Woman to Wife.

1726 A. Pope tr. Homer Odyssey V. xxi. 73 If I the prize, if me you seek to wife.

1768 Universal Mag. May 254/1 He had to wife Anne, daughter to Henry Somerset, Earl of Worcester.

1856 C. Le Quesne Constit. Hist. Jersey iii. 85 John de Hingeham offers to the lord the king 200 marks to have to wife the daughter of Walter Walerand.

1867 J. Ingelow Story of Doom 115 I will to wife choose me a stately maid.

1964 Tulane Drama Rev. 8 151 Faustus in hell will have to wife a devil bride.

1990 S. Sondheim in J. L. Gordon Art isn't Easy x. 310 I must have her to wife.

b. to take (in early use (i-)nim) to wife: to marry (a woman). Now archaic.

ΚΠ

OE Ælfric Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Laud) Pref. 76 On anginne þisere worulde nam se broþer hys swuster to wife.

lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) anno 1100 Se cyng genam Mahalde him to wife.

?a1160 Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough contin.) anno 1140 He toc hire to wiue.

a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 2764 To wife in lage he hire nam.

a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1961) Lev. xxi. 7 A strumpet & foule hoordam ȝe shollen not take to wife.

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. vi. xiii. 308 He..spousiþ hire wiþ a ring and takeþ hire to wif.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) Lev. xxi. 14 No wedowe, ner deuorsed, ner defyled..but a virgin of his awne people shal he take to wife.

1591 (?a1425) Annunciation & Nativity (Huntington) in R. M. Lumiansky & D. Mill Chester Myst. Cycle (1974) I. 103 (MED) God, lett never an [MS and] ould man take to wife a yonge woman.

1648 M. Prideaux & J. Prideaux Easy & Compend. Introd. Hist. 216 He took to Wife Eudocia, the Daughter of one Leontius a Philosopher.

1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 80. ⁋3 She..was taken to Wife by a Gentleman.

1797 J. Wentworth Compl. Syst. Pleading II. 489 He the said defendant would intermarry with and take to wife her the said plaintiff, within the space of one month.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. ii. 231 James had..taken to wife the princess Mary of Modena.

1907 C. Hill-Tout Brit. N. Amer., Far West x. 182 Early marriages were..the custom, the girls being often barely pubescent when taken to wife.

1962 J. Dillenberger Martin Luther p. xxiv It is common knowledge that..Luther took to wife one of the nuns who apparently would settle for nothing less than Luther himself.

2009 K. Whitfield In Great Waters iv. 40 The Doge of Venice, Oberlerio, took to wife a Frankish bride.

c. †to give (also forgive, grant) to wife: to give (a woman) in marriage. Obsolete.

ΚΠ

OE Ælfric Lives of Saints (Julius) (1881) I. 432 Æðeldryð wearð þa forgifen anum ealdormenn to wife.

lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough contin.) anno 1126 Mid him com se cwen & his dohter þæt he æror hafde giuen þone kasere Heanri onf [read of] Loherenge to wife.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 7482 I suld..giue mi doghter him to wijf.

c1405 (c1385) G. Chaucer Knight's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 1002 Thanne shal I yeue Emelye to wyue.

1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid vii. viii. 61 Bot he the grant to wyf his child Lavine.

1586 W. Warner Albions Eng. ii. vii. 28 All Aetolia was fild with Hercules his praise, To whom the king did giue to Wife faire Deanira.

1659 R. P. tr. D. Petau Hist. World viii. xv. 333 He had concluded a league and friendship with Peter King of the Bulgarians, to whom he gave to wife his Neece Christopher's daughter.

1698 A. Tooke tr. F. Pomey Pantheon (ed. 2) iv. iii. 351 Hercules..taking Hippolyte their Queen Prisoner, gave her to Wife to Theseus.

a1792 T. Falconer Chronological Tables (1796) 25 Pharaoh..had given him the sister of his queen Tahpenes to wife.

1840 Judges of Israel (ed. 2) viii. 91 What was the family of one to whom his daughter was likely to be given to wife.

1872 W. F. Skene tr. John of Fordun Fordun's Chron. v. xxxi. 222 The empress Matilda..came back to her father Henry, king of England; and the latter afterwards gave her to wife to Geoffroy, Count of Anjou.

d. †to will to wife: to desire to marry (a woman). Obsolete.

ΚΠ

a1275 St. Margaret (Trin. Cambr.) l. 52 in A. S. M. Clark Seint Maregrete & Body & Soul (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Michigan) (1972) 19 He williet þe to wiue.

c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 8926 (MED) Þe emperour of alimayne willede to wiue [a1425 Pepys his wiff, ?a1425 Digby his wyfe] Mold þe kinges doȝter.

c1390 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. iii. l. 106 Ȝif he wilne þe to wyf wolt þou him haue?

P2. Paired with mother in reference to a woman's traditional role within a family. Esp. in wife and mother.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > woman > [noun]

wifeeOE

womaneOE

womanOE

queanOE

brideOE

viragoc1000

to wifeOE

burdc1225

ladyc1225

carlinec1375

stotc1386

marec1387

pigsneyc1390

fellowa1393

piecec1400

femalea1425

goddessa1450

fairc1450

womankindc1450

fellowessa1500

femininea1513

tega1529

sister?1532

minikinc1540

wyec1540

placket1547

pig's eye1553

hen?1555

ware1558

pussy?a1560

jade1560

feme1566

gentlewoman1567

mort1567

pinnacea1568

jug1569

rowen1575

tarleather1575

mumps1576

skirt1578

piga1586

rib?1590

puppy1592

smock1592

maness1594

sloy1596

Madonna1602

moll1604

periwinkle1604

Partlet1607

rib of man1609

womanship?1609

modicum1611

Gypsy1612

petticoata1616

runniona1616

birda1627

lucky1629

she-man1640

her1646

lost rib1647

uptails1671

cow1696

tittup1696

cummer17..

wife1702

she-woman1703

person1704

molly1706

fusby1707

goody1708

riding hood1718

birdie1720

faggot1722

piece of goods1727

woman body1771

she-male1776

biddy1785

bitch1785

covess1789

gin1790

pintail1792

buer1807

femme1814

bibi1816

Judy1819

a bit (also bundle) of muslin1823

wifie1823

craft1829

shickster?1834

heifer1835

mot1837

tit1837

Sitt1838

strap1842

hay-bag1851

bint1855

popsy1855

tart1864

woman's woman1868

to deliver the goods1870

chapess1871

Dona1874

girl1878

ladykind1878

mivvy1881

dudess1883

dudette1883

dudine1883

tid1888

totty1890

tootsy1895

floozy1899

dame1902

jane1906

Tom1906

frail1908

bit of stuff1909

quim1909

babe1911

broad1914

muff1914

manhole1916

number1919

rossie1922

bit1923

man's woman1928

scupper1935

split1935

rye mort1936

totsy1938

leg1939

skinny1941

Richard1950

potato1957

scow1960

wimmin1975

womyn1975

womxn1991

1702 E. Sherburne in tr. Seneca Trag. (new ed.) 89 (note) When she cast off the Duty and Affection of a Daughter, as now of a Wife and Mother.

1799 Montrose I. xx. 250 Ye cannot—shall not—blemish the innocence of an exemplary wife and mother by your notorious calumny.

1850 E. C. Gaskell Let. Apr. (1966) 108 One of my mes is..a true Christian..another of my mes is a wife and mother, and highly delighted at the delight of everyone else in the house.

1899 Western Mail (Cardiff) 7 Dec. 7/2 Mrs. Benjamin's conduct was anything but that of a wife and mother. She was frequently the worse for drink.

1930 A. Christie Murder at Vicarage xxxii. 252 I'm going to be a real ‘wife and mother’ (as they say in books).

1983 L. B. Rubin Intimate Strangers (1984) ii. 31 I'm not being that perfect little wife and mother.

2014 Radio Times 18 Jan. (South/West ed.) 130/2 Greer's descriptions in the book of the role of the conventional wife and mother are bleak and doomy.

P3. a wife in every port and variants: used allusively to refer to the numerous and geographically widespread lovers or sexual partners of a sailor (or, in later use, anyone who travels widely).

ΘΚΠ

society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > [phrase] > relations enjoyed by sailors

a wife in every portc1690

c1690 Mothers Kindness (single sheet) A Saylor is a cunning Knave, who does all sorts of women Court, It is well known that they will have, a wife or friend at e'ery Port.

1761 I. Bickerstaff Thomas & Sally i. iii. 5 'Tis pretty sport, for one that gets a wife at ev'ry port.

1806 Universal Mag. New Ser. May 429/2 If it be true, as asserted of the heroes of the ocean, that they find a wife in every port, it is as certainly true of those ramblers, the modern minstrels, that they find a mistress in every country.

1878 W. H. Mallock New Paul & Virginia (ed. 2) iv. 24 The captain in particular, who had a wife in every port he touched at, was overjoyed at hearing that there was no hell.

1907 Punch 22 May 365/2 (caption) Admiral. And what made you wish to become a sailor, my boy? Navy Candidate (in perfect good faith). Because he's got a wife in every port, sir.

1933 E. Œ. Somerville & ‘M. Ross’ Smile & Tear xi. 132 ‘The wife in every port’, supposed to be the perquisite of sailors, is no more than the constant aspiration of every self-respecting dog.

1985 Econ. & Polit. Weekly 5 Jan. 6/3 His friend Arjuna like a sailor has a wife in every port.

2011 J. Balcom in tr. Huang Fan Zero & Other Fictions p. ix Huang has simply taken real-life accounts of Taiwanese businessmen with a wife in every port and produced an allegory in which [etc.].

P4. colloquial. With singular and plural agreement. (all) the world and his wife: a large and miscellaneous group of people; everybody. Cf. world n. Phrases 6b(a).

ΚΠ

1730 Daily Post 30 June (advt.) A Defence of Hen-pecks: Or, All the World and his Wife.

1738 J. Swift Compl. Coll. Genteel Conversat. 192 Miss. Pray, Madam, who were the Company? Lady Smart. Why, there was all the World, and his Wife.

1790 ‘A. Pasquin’ Postscript to New Bath Guide vi. 55 For this Hostess invites—all the world and his wife.

1822 Ld. Byron Let. 12 Jan. (1979) IX. 85 ‘All the World and his Wife’..as the proverb goes—were trying to trample upon me.

1864 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865) I. i. xvii. 157 All the world and his wife and daughter leave cards.

1912 World 7 May 701/1 So much has been heard of Hardelot lately..that its name must be familiar to all the world and his wife.

1946 N. Coward One, Two, Three in B. Day N. Coward: Compl. Lyrics (1998) 242/3 All the world and his wife Seemed to take a new life From that absurd—hurdy-gurdy little tune.

2000 D. Peace Nineteen Seventy-seven (2001) 295 I feel like a right prick stood out there for all the world and his wife to see.

2007 Opera Now Mar. 47/1 The world and his wife, as they said at the Press Office, were clamouring for tickets.

P5. wife of one's bosom: see bosom n. 1c. wife of the left hand: see wife of the left hand n. at left hand n. and adj. Phrases 3a. man and wife: see man n.¹ 8a.

Compounds

C1.

a. General attributive and objective.

wife murder n.

ΚΠ

1653 Bloody Husband, & Cruell Neigbour 12 The cry of Richard Langley's blood did move the blood-avenging God to leave Mr Sprackling to fall to that Wife-murther.

1871 C. Kingsley At Last x. 233 Wife-murder is but too common among these Hindoos.

1956 Bradford (Pa.) Era 1 June 1 Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard..must serve out a life sentence for wife-murder.

2011 L. Tolton in D. Majstorović & I. Lassen Living with Patriarchy i. 40 The usual motivation for wife murder is a man's loss of control over his wife's sexuality.

wife-purchase n.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > wedding or nuptials > [noun] > manner of marrying > bride-purchase

bride purchasea1860

wife-purchase1862

lobola1897

1862 W. Russell Undiscovered Crimes 222 The marriage, spite of the plain face, the unlovely form, and the huckstering wife-purchase and sale, was a happy one.

1935 Robstown (Texas) Record 21 Feb. 2/5 Missionarys [sic] discourage but do not prohibit the custom of ‘wife purchase’.

2000 S. Bellow Ravelstein 193 The researcher who recorded all this said they were a currency used in wife-purchase.

wife-seeker n.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > seeking marriage > [noun] > seeking a wife > one who

wife hunter1752

wife-seeker1788

1788 Reflector I. x. 78 Let us consider what qualities it is in our fair female game, which makes them seem most tempting to those keen poachers, the wife seekers.

1859 K. Cornwallis Panorama New World I. 231 The profession of the wife-seeker was greatly in his favor.

1966 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 8 May 3 She's enough to convert any confirmed bachelor into an ardent wife-seeker.

2013 National (Abu Dhabi) (Nexis) 13 Nov. Wife-seekers of the past would specify relatively more non-physical attributes, like: being pious, from a good family and kind-hearted.

wife-slaughter n.

ΚΠ

1609 Bible (Douay) I. Num. v. Comm. God ordained this law..to avoid wiveslaughter.

1846 T. D. Gregg Free Thoughts on Protestant Matters v. 76/1 The wholesale wife-slaughter of Henry VIII.

1920 L. J. Miln Feast of Lanterns ix. 62 Ping-yang sank down on her heels in a frenzy of weeping that seemed to indicate prompt fulfillment of the prediction of Ch'êng Hsu's wife-slaughter.

2005 W. Deverell April Fool (2006) v. 54 There's a former jail guard waiting sentencing..for manslaughter or, in his case, wifeslaughter.

b. Appositive.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > wife who is also something else

wifec1330

trophy wife1973

c1330 (?c1300) Bevis of Hampton (Auch.) l. 310 (MED) Alle wif houren..Þe deuel of helle ich hii be-take.

1843 City of London Mag. Jan. 239 She had become that worst of all slaves, a wife-slave.

1902 Westm. Gaz. 6 Aug. 1/3 He retires from work..and purchases wife-slaves to maintain him in idleness.

1976 B. F. Dukore Where Laughter Stops 35 In the second part of the play, husband-lover and wife-whore play a variety of sexual games.

1998 M. E. John in J. Nair & M. E. John Question of Silence 379 His conjugal desire comes to be fully reciprocated by the wife-heroine.

c. Instrumental.

ΚΠ

?1614 G. Chapman tr. Homer Odysses xi. 168 She brought her wife-awd husband, Neleus.

1647 N. Ward Simple Cobler Aggawam 27 Our considerate, I dare not say wife-worne Commons.

1855 R. C. Singleton tr. Virgil Aeneid iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. I. 365 Dost thou now Foundations of the stately Carthage lay, And, wife-besotted, art thou rearing up Her beauteous city?

1861 W. Thornbury Cross Country xi. 111 Charles I., that melancholy and wife-ruled bigot.

1983 J. Wainwright Spiral Staircase 131 Dick Sullivan was wife-dominated.

C2. Compounds with wife.

wife basher n. colloquial (now chiefly Australian) = wife-beater n. 1.

ΚΠ

1893 New Rev. July 47 The wife-basher, who attacks his victim with a poker.

1979 J. Wainwright Tension 98 She walked to the home of the ‘wife-basher’..and..went into action.

2014 Geelong (Austral.) Advertiser (Nexis) 2 May 35 Jaywalkers, way up there with child abusers, wife bashers and drug dealers. Fantastic use of resources.

wife bashing n. colloquial (now chiefly Australian) = wife-beating n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > hostile action or attack > [noun] > upon specific types of person

wife-beating1650

wife bashing1898

queerbaiting1956

Paki-bashing1970

queer-bashing1970

wife-battering1973

granny bashing1974

granny battering1975

gay-bashing1977

Paki-busting1977

1898 Sketch 11 May 121 Those whom the doctor cured—cured of a drink habit or taste for wife-‘bashing’—died soon after the cure.

1978 J. Wainwright Thief of Time 221 ‘Why should some wandering female run to the nearest doctor?’..‘Wife-bashing. Unwanted pregnancy. A score of reasons.’

2014 Afr. News (Nexis) 26 Nov. It should be expressly understood that wife bashing is a criminal offence that is punishable by law.

wife-battering n. = wife-beating n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > hostile action or attack > [noun] > upon specific types of person

wife-beating1650

wife bashing1898

queerbaiting1956

Paki-bashing1970

queer-bashing1970

wife-battering1973

granny bashing1974

granny battering1975

gay-bashing1977

Paki-busting1977

1973 Irish Times 18 June 7/6 He is asking the British Home Secretary..for an inquiry into wife battering.

2015 Globe & Mail (Canada) (Nexis) 31 Jan. f1 Canadian and U.S. courts treated wife-battering mostly as a private family matter until the 1970s.

wife-bound adj. bound in marriage to a woman; limited or restricted, esp. in one's travel or activities, by a wife.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married man > [adjective]

wife-bounda1547

wived1556

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married man > [adjective] > relating to a husband > henpecked

wifish1607

woman-tireda1616

henpecked1660

wife-ridden1685

wife-bound1820

petticoat-governed1832

pussy-whipped1953

a1547 Earl of Surrey tr. Virgil Certain Bks. Aenæis (1557) iv. sig. Eiii A wifebound [L. uxorius] man.

1820 J. Keats Let. 28 Jan. (1958) II. 247 Henry is wife-bound in Cambden Town there is no getting him out.

1950 Princeton Alumni Weekly 17 Feb. 30/1 Morgan Bird..is wife-bound as of January 7. Her name was Diane Moore.

wife broker n. a person who finds marriageable women for a fee; a marriage broker.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > match-making > [noun] > match-maker

broker1377

marriage-maker1591

proxenete1609

matcher1611

ring-carriera1616

matchmaker1638

match-broker1640

marriage broker1662

marriage-bawd1676

match-monger1680

flesh-broker1699

wife broker1700

black-sole1725

marriage-monger?1748

Blackfoot1808

blackleg1825

1700 T. Brown Amusem. Serious & Comical vii. 78 These Marriage Hucksters, or Wife-Brokers.

1877 Belfast News-let. 29 Mar. Powell Slade became wife-broker, and brought forward his servant girl.., 17 years old.

2014 Phnom Penh (Cambodia) Post (Nexis) 7 Aug. (headline) Trafficking charges for wife broker.

† wife-carl n. Scottish Obsolete a man who occupies himself with work of a domestic nature, or work traditionally done by women; cf. cotquean n. 3.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > man > [noun] > man who does domestic or household work

wife-carl?1507

cotquean1597

cot1699

?1507 W. Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen (Rouen) in Poems (1998) I. 50 I maid that wif carll to werk all womenis werkis.

1816 W. Scott Antiquary I. xiv. 311 An ye will be a wife-carle, and buy fish at your ain hands.

1871 J. A. H. Murray in D. Lindsay Minor Poems 589 (margin) A niggardly curmudgeon, a wife-carl.

wife-hunt n. a search for a wife for oneself.

ΚΠ

1849 Graham's Mag. Feb. 115/2 Jasper..met with some strange adventure during his wife-hunt.

1908 E. Oldmeadow Aunt Maud 94 Richard Camber, home for six months on a wife-hunt..had decided to pay me court.

2001 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 13 Jan. (Late ed.) 14 His wife-hunts began with pamphlets about himself, which he circulated among hairdressers in Sydney and Melbourne.

wife-hunt v. intransitive to search for a wife for oneself.

ΚΠ

1864 Ld. Tennyson Aylmer's Field in Enoch Arden, etc. 62 Wife-hunting, as the rumour ran, was he.

1913 Continent 4 Sept. 1225/2 I don't want to wife hunt any farther. There ain't anybody like you for me, Cynthy.

2004 K. J. Fowler Jane Austen Bk. Club 257 Wentworth appears to wife-hunt among the Musgrove daughters, favoring Louisa.

wife hunter n. a person in search of a wife.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > seeking marriage > [noun] > seeking a wife > one who

wife hunter1752

wife-seeker1788

1752 B. Thornton Have at you All 26 Mar. 244 (heading) Adventures of a Wife-hunter.

1826 W. Cobbett Rural Rides in Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 14 Oct. 146 Young wife-hunters in search of rich and ugly and old women.

1957 Mansfield (Ohio) News-Jrnl. 8 Feb. 24 Petz described himself as a 29-year old single wife-hunter, never married.

2012 Washington Post (Nexis) 24 Nov. a1 They have apprehended dozens of Arab wife hunters and matchmakers who infiltrated the Jordanian camp posing as relief workers.

wife-hunting n. the action of searching for a wife for oneself.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > seeking marriage > [noun] > seeking a wife

wife-hunting1708

1708 W. Taverner Maid the Mistress iv. 43 If I ever come to this Place a Wife hunting again, may my Skin be stripp'd over my Ears.

1750 Adventures Mr. Loveill II. 2 Between wife-hunting and fortune-hunting.

1862 F. W. Robinson Owen II. vii. 126 So you're off to forrin' parts..fortune-hunting and wife-hunting, p'r'aps, and such like things.

1907 E. V. Lucas Swan & Friends 90 Having loved in vain a lady whom he met at Shaftesbury while on a wife-hunting expedition.

2010 D. Morrissey Plantation ii. 41 There's not much opportunity for wife hunting in the colonies.

wife-old adj. now rare (of a girl or woman) old enough to be a wife, of marriageable age.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > adult > [adjective] > adult woman

womanly?1507

woman-grown1786

wife-old1898

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > fitness for marriage > [adjective] > of marriageable age

manable1608

wife-old1898

1898 Strand Mag. Apr. 365/1 A woman we call Laylá, in that she was wife-old; but the girl had seen no more than thirteen summers.

1901 E. Phillpotts Striking Hours 31 I was wife-auld, an' a peart gal very interested in men-folk.

1933 Indian State Railways Mag. Aug. 717/1 Malavika was wife-old. Already suitors had spoken for her hand.

wife-ridden adj. oppressed by one's wife; henpecked.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married man > [adjective] > relating to a husband > henpecked

wifish1607

woman-tireda1616

henpecked1660

wife-ridden1685

wife-bound1820

petticoat-governed1832

pussy-whipped1953

1685 M. Hildesley Religio Jurisprudentis viii. 75 Be not by any means Wife-ridden, to be wheedled out of your Wealth and Wits at once.

1716 C. Bullock Adventures of Half Hour 38 Mercy on me, was ever poor Man so Wife-ridden?

1828 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 830/1 He was, in fact, wife-ridden, his good lady wearing the breeches.

1957 New Castle (Pa.) News 17 June 6 They are wife-ridden and family-centered to a point where they no longer are willing to take risks in the old American fashion.

2011 B. H. Irvin Clothed in Robes of Sovereignty ii. 62 One loyalist writer caricaturized Southern congressmen as weak, wife-ridden husbands.

wife sale n. now historical the sale of a wife; spec. an informal divorce ritual in which a married woman is offered by her husband for sale to male bidders at a public auction.Wife sales, often held with the woman's consent, sometimes occurred among the poorer classes of Britain in the 18th and early 19th centuries when divorce was not readily available or affordable. The phenomenon was brought to wider public attention by the depiction of such an auction in the opening chapter of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), though the term itself does not appear in Hardy's work.

ΚΠ

1859 G. T. Robertson & J. R. Green Oxf. during Last Cent. 124/1 A curious instance of the low morality of the times may be seen in the frequency of the ‘Wife Sales’. In August, 1786, we find that ‘one Broom..sold his wife to a person of the name of Panton.’

1863 Bradford Observer 19 Mar. 3/4 A wife sale took place in Merthyr Tydvil a few days ago... The price for which the man sold his wife was £3; £2 10s.

1946 E. Blunden Shelley 20 An occasional wife-sale produced lots of fun.

2014 M. Nicolaou Divorced, Beheaded, Sold vi. 149 In general, people seem to have grown more and more hostile towards wife sales from the late eighteenth century onwards.

† wife-widow n. Obsolete rare a wife living apart from her husband.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > wife whose husband is absent

widow1447

grass widow1822

wife-widow1875

golf-widow1898

1875 Ld. Tennyson Queen Mary iii. i. 120 If this Philip,..Left Mary a wife-widow here alone.

C3. Compounds with wife's.

† wife's light n. Obsolete rare a light in a church maintained by married women; cf. maidens' light n. at maiden n. and adj. Compounds 1b.

ΚΠ

1547–8 in H. J. F. Swayne Churchwardens' Accts. Sarum (1896) 275 x li. of wex for the wyfes Light.

Derivatives

ˈwifekin n. colloquial a (or one's) wife (chiefly as an affectionate diminutive).

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > love > terms of endearment > [noun] > of or to a spouse, parent, or close companion > of or to wife

cara sposa?1760

wifie1776

wifekin1831

wifelkin1851

wifelet1857

wifeling1861

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > little wife (term of endearment)

wifie1776

wifekin1831

wifelkin1851

wifelet1857

wifeling1861

1831 T. Carlyle Let. 4 Mar. in Coll. Lett. T. & J. W. Carlyle (1976) V. 243 Coming along, with my wifekin under my arm, to—London!

1898 J. Paton Castlebraes 184 Whenever conversation flags, Wifekin starts off again, exactly as if there never had been a break.

2002 T. J. Binyon tr. A. S. Pushkin in Pushkin (2004) xii. 384 Why, wifekin, do you want to compete with Countess Sollogub?

ˈwifeling n. colloquial †(a) a little woman (in quot. 1861 as an affectionate diminutive, referring to a daughter, translating German Weibchen) (obsolete); (b) a (or one's) wife (chiefly as an affectionate diminutive).

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > love > terms of endearment > [noun] > of or to a spouse, parent, or close companion > of or to wife

cara sposa?1760

wifie1776

wifekin1831

wifelkin1851

wifelet1857

wifeling1861

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > little wife (term of endearment)

wifie1776

wifekin1831

wifelkin1851

wifelet1857

wifeling1861

1861 Dwight's Jrnl. Music 2 Nov. 242/2 [Leopold] Mozart's reception by Duschek in Prague..is described by him in letters to his ‘Wifeling’ Nannerl.

1868 F. W. Farrar Seekers after God ii. iv. 226 If..some wifeling or childling be granted you.

1923 L. J. Miln Mr. & Mrs. Sên xlvii. 276 Won't you have her kindness, wifeling?

2014 Southern Reporter (Scotl.) (Nexis) 4 Apr. When his eldest's wifeling, the once barren Ila..becomes pregnant the air is tense with expectation.

ˈwifeship n. the position or condition of a wife.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > condition or position of

wifehooda1393

wifeheadc1500

wifeship1658

uxorialitya1832

wiving1840

wifedom1845

1658 S. Rutherford Surv. of Surv. Church-discipline ii. i. 181 If the wife destroy the husband to save her self, she destroys her own wifeship, while she labours the preservation of her self as a woman.

1891 T. K. Cheyne Origin & Relig. Contents Psalter vii. 315 The figures of sonship and wifeship were no longer adequate to express Israel's relation to its Lord.

2005 Western Hist. Q. 36 162 White patriarchy altered the legal status of the women..and entitled them to 320 acres by virtue of their ‘wifeship’.

ˈwifeward adv. to or towards one's wife.

ΚΠ

1866 Adams Sentinel (Gettysburg, Pa.) 14 Aug. The heavy head made another sag wifeward a full inch.

1885 R. Kipling Mare's Nest in Departmental Ditties & Other Verses Then Belial Machiavelli saw Her error (and I trust his own)... And travelled wifeward—not alone.

1988 D. Luke tr. J. W. von Goethe Diary xxiii, in tr. J. W. von Goethe Rom. Elegies & Diary (new ed.) 115 He's soon homeward and wifeward bound.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online December 2021).

单词	wife
释义	wifen. Brit. /wʌɪf/, U.S. /waɪf/ Inflections: Plural wives /waɪvz/. Forms: 1. Singular. a. early Old English uiif, early Old English wiib (Kentish), Old English uif (Northumbrian), Old English–Middle English wiif, Old English–1600s wif, Old English (rare)–1600s wyf, Middle English vif, Middle English vijfe, Middle English vyf, Middle English vyfe, Middle English weife, Middle English weyfe, Middle English whif, Middle English whife, Middle English whyfe, Middle English wijf, Middle English wyefe, Middle English wyȝffe, Middle English wyif, Middle English wyiff, Middle English wyyf, Middle English wyyfe, Middle English (1500s in derivatives) wyve, Middle English (1500s–1700s in compounds and derivatives) 1800s– wive (now regional), Middle English–1500s weyffe, Middle English–1500s whyffe, Middle English–1500s wyef, Middle English–1500s wyue, Middle English–1500s (1600s in compounds and derivatives) wiue, Middle English–1600s wief, Middle English–1600s wiefe, Middle English–1600s wieffe, Middle English–1600s wiff, Middle English–1600s wiffe, Middle English–1600s wyfe, Middle English–1600s wyff, Middle English–1600s wyffe, Middle English– wife, late Middle English wyse (transmission error), 1500s wieff; Scottish pre-1700 uayff, pre-1700 uyfe, pre-1700 veif, pre-1700 veife, pre-1700 veiff, pre-1700 vif, pre-1700 vife, pre-1700 viff, pre-1700 viffe, pre-1700 vyf, pre-1700 vyfe, pre-1700 vyff, pre-1700 vyffe, pre-1700 vyif, pre-1700 vyiff, pre-1700 waif, pre-1700 wayf, pre-1700 wayfe, pre-1700 wayffe, pre-1700 wef, pre-1700 weife, pre-1700 wif, pre-1700 wiff, pre-1700 wijf, pre-1700 wive, pre-1700 wyef, pre-1700 wyeff, pre-1700 wyf, pre-1700 wyff, pre-1700 wyffe, pre-1700 wyif, pre-1700 wyiff, pre-1700 wyve, pre-1700 wywe, pre-1700 1700s– wife, pre-1700 1700s– wyfe, pre-1700 1800s wiffe, pre-1700 1900s– wief. b. Genitive. α. early Old English wiifes, Old English uifes (Northumbrian), Old English (rare)–1600s wiues, Old English– wifes (now nonstandard), late Old English–1500s wyfes, early Middle English wifef (transmission error), Middle English wijfes, Middle English wiuis, Middle English wiwes, Middle English wyffis, Middle English wyffys, Middle English wyfis, Middle English wyuys, Middle English–1600s wives, Middle English–1600s wyues, Middle English–1600s wyves, 1500s wyvys, 1500s–1700s wive's, 1600s wif's, 1600s (1700s English regional) wiffes, 1700s– wife's; also Scottish pre-1700 viffis, pre-1700 vyffis, pre-1700 vyvys, pre-1700 wayfes, pre-1700 wif's, pre-1700 wife's, pre-1700 wifes, pre-1700 wiffes, pre-1700 wiffis, pre-1700 wifis, pre-1700 wifs, pre-1700 wiues, pre-1700 wives, pre-1700 wyfe’s, pre-1700 wyfes, pre-1700 wyffes, pre-1700 wyffis, pre-1700 wyfis, pre-1700 wyifes, pre-1700 wyifis, pre-1700 wyues, pre-1700 wyves, pre-1700 wyvis, pre-1700 wywys. β. Middle English wife, Middle English wijf. c. Dative. early Old English wiife, Old English uife (Northumbrian), Old English wyfe (rare), Old English–early Middle English wife, Old English (rare)–Middle English wiue, late Old English–Middle English wyue, early Middle English wifue, Middle English wifan (in copy of Old English charter), Middle English wiu (transmission error), Middle English wive, Middle English wyve. 2. Plural. a. α. early Old English wiif, Old English–early Middle English wif, Old English (rare)–Middle English wyf. β. Old English wifa (Northumbrian), Old English wifo (Northumbrian), early Middle English wifen, Middle English wive (dative), Middle English wyue. γ. late Old English–1700s wifes, early Middle English wifess ( Ormulum), early Middle English wifues, Middle English vijfes, Middle English vyueȝ, Middle English wiffis, Middle English wifs, Middle English wifwes, Middle English wifys, Middle English wijfes, Middle English wijfs, Middle English wiuis, Middle English wius, Middle English wiuus, Middle English wiuys, Middle English wivus, Middle English wiwes, Middle English wyffis, Middle English wyfis, Middle English wyfs, Middle English wyuys, Middle English wyuyse, Middle English wywes, Middle English–1500s wifis, Middle English–1500s wyfes, Middle English–1500s wyuis, Middle English–1600s wiues, Middle English–1600s wyues, Middle English–1600s wyves, late Middle English wyse (transmission error, in a late copy), 1500s wiffes, 1500s wyffes, 1600s wiefs, 1600s wivs, 1600s– wives; Scottish pre-1700 vifis, pre-1700 vuifes, pre-1700 vyffis, pre-1700 vyfues, pre-1700 vyues, pre-1700 vyuis, pre-1700 wieffis, pre-1700 wiffes, pre-1700 wiffis, pre-1700 wifis, pre-1700 wifs, pre-1700 wiues, pre-1700 wiwys, pre-1700 wyfes, pre-1700 wyffeis, pre-1700 wyffes, pre-1700 wyffis, pre-1700 wyfis, pre-1700 wyiffis, pre-1700 wyifis, pre-1700 wyues, pre-1700 wyuis, pre-1700 wyves, pre-1700 wyvis, pre-1700 wywis, pre-1700 wywys, pre-1700 1700s– wives, pre-1700 1900s– wifes. b. Genitive. α. early Old English wiifa, Old English–early Middle English wifa, early Middle English wifue, early Middle English wiwa, Middle English wife, Middle English wiue, Middle English wyne (transmission error). β. Old English wifana (Northumbrian), early Middle English wifuene, Middle English wiuen, Middle English wiuene, Middle English wivene, Middle English wyuen, Middle English wyuene, Middle English wyueyn, Middle English wyven, Middle English wyvene. γ. early Middle English ȝiues (transmission error), early Middle English wifess ( Ormulum), Middle English wiuis, Middle English wyuys, Middle English–1600s wiues, Middle English– wives (now nonstandard), 1500s–1600s wyues, 1500s–1600s wyves, 1700s– wives'; also Scottish pre-1700 wifes, pre-1700 wiffes, pre-1700 wiffis, pre-1700 wiues, pre-1700 wives, pre-1700 wyfes, pre-1700 wyffis, pre-1700 wyves. δ. early Middle English wivenes- (in compounds). Origin: A word inherited from Germanic. Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian wīf woman, married woman (West Frisian wiif ), Old Dutch wīf woman, female spouse (Middle Dutch wijf woman, married woman, Dutch wijf woman, female (now chiefly derogatory)), Old Saxon wīf woman, married woman (Middle Low German wīf ), Old High German wīb woman, female, married woman (Middle High German wīp woman, female, married woman (also with pejorative connotations), German Weib woman, female (now chiefly derogatory)), Old Icelandic víf (in poetry) woman (Icelandic víf ), Old Swedish vif woman, married woman (Swedish viv , now archaic), Old Danish wiff woman, married woman (Danish viv , now archaic), of unknown origin. Compare woman n.History in Germanic. This word is not attested in Gothic (which uses a derivative of the base of quean n. in the sense ‘woman’ and of queen n. in the sense ‘married woman’) and has no secure cognates outside Germanic. It is generally accepted that the primary sense of the Germanic noun was ‘woman’ (without reference to marital status), with more specific use of a married woman arising later as a secondary development, although both senses are attested from the earliest stages of each of the Germanic languages, and in many cases it is unclear from the context which of the two is intended. Compare similar use of Old English wer to denote both ‘man’ and ‘husband’ (see were n.¹). In Dutch and German, pejorative use appears to reflect semantic restriction arising from the increasing predominance of other words in the core senses ‘woman’ and ‘married woman’, especially Dutch vrouw , German Frau (see frow n. and frau n., respectively). Compare the semantic development of quean n. in English. Further etymology. Several phonologically plausible suggestions have been made as to the further etymology of this word, connecting it variously with e.g.: (i) an ablaut variant of the Indo-European base of Old English wǣfan to clothe (see weve v.²; compare the prefixed verb bewǣfan to cover, especially with a garment, to wrap around, to clothe: see biweve v.¹), with allusion to the custom in early Germanic societies for married women to wear the hair covered; (ii) the Indo-European base of Old High German weibōn to vacillate, fluctuate, move hither and thither (see waive v.²), with allusion either to the role of women as active workers in the home and on the land, or to a swaying gait held to be characteristic of adult females, (iii) the Indo-European base of Tocharian A kip , Tocharian B kwīpe shame, modesty, also genitals. However, all of these suggestions adduce semantic developments that cannot be substantiated by the evidence available. An etymological connection with the base of weave v.¹ has also been suggested, on the grounds of archaeological, historical, and lexical evidence that the production of textiles was strongly associated with women in Germanic societies; compare e.g. Old English spinelhealf (lit. ‘spindle side’) in sense ‘female line of descent’, beside wīfhealf , wīfhand . Perhaps compare also friðuwebbe (lit. ‘peace weaver’), used in heroic verse as an epithet of the female partner in a dynastic marriage (although contrast the corresponding masculine form friðuwebba , used of an angel). However, such a derivation presents phonological difficulties. For further discussion of many of the theories proposed, see D. E. Baron Gram. & Gender (1986) 34–7. Form history. In Old English usually a strong neuter (with unchanged nominative and accusative plural); analogical weak plural forms are attested in Northumbrian Old English and (especially in the genitive) in Middle English (see Forms 2aβ. , 2bβ. ); the plural in -s is already attested in occasional use in late Old English and becomes the norm in Middle English. The rare early Middle English genitive plural form wivenes- (see Forms 2bδ. ; one isolated attestation: see quot. a1300 at wiven adj.) shows double plural marking. The stem-final inherited voiced fricative was devoiced word-finally in Old English, but voicing was preserved before the vowel of the inflectional endings (although the consonant is spelt f in both positions). The resulting variation in the paradigm is continued in modern standard English in the distinction between the stem forms of the singular and plural, but not in the modern genitive singular form. I. A woman considered without reference to marital status, and related senses. 1. A woman. Cf. wifie n. 2. Now chiefly Scottish. ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > woman > [noun] wifeeOE womaneOE womanOE queanOE brideOE viragoc1000 to wifeOE burdc1225 ladyc1225 carlinec1375 stotc1386 marec1387 pigsneyc1390 fellowa1393 piecec1400 femalea1425 goddessa1450 fairc1450 womankindc1450 fellowessa1500 femininea1513 tega1529 sister?1532 minikinc1540 wyec1540 placket1547 pig's eye1553 hen?1555 ware1558 pussy?a1560 jade1560 feme1566 gentlewoman1567 mort1567 pinnacea1568 jug1569 rowen1575 tarleather1575 mumps1576 skirt1578 piga1586 rib?1590 puppy1592 smock1592 maness1594 sloy1596 Madonna1602 moll1604 periwinkle1604 Partlet1607 rib of man1609 womanship?1609 modicum1611 Gypsy1612 petticoata1616 runniona1616 birda1627 lucky1629 she-man1640 her1646 lost rib1647 uptails1671 cow1696 tittup1696 cummer17.. wife1702 she-woman1703 person1704 molly1706 fusby1707 goody1708 riding hood1718 birdie1720 faggot1722 piece of goods1727 woman body1771 she-male1776 biddy1785 bitch1785 covess1789 gin1790 pintail1792 buer1807 femme1814 bibi1816 Judy1819 a bit (also bundle) of muslin1823 wifie1823 craft1829 shickster?1834 heifer1835 mot1837 tit1837 Sitt1838 strap1842 hay-bag1851 bint1855 popsy1855 tart1864 woman's woman1868 to deliver the goods1870 chapess1871 Dona1874 girl1878 ladykind1878 mivvy1881 dudess1883 dudette1883 dudine1883 tid1888 totty1890 tootsy1895 floozy1899 dame1902 jane1906 Tom1906 frail1908 bit of stuff1909 quim1909 babe1911 broad1914 muff1914 manhole1916 number1919 rossie1922 bit1923 man's woman1928 scupper1935 split1935 rye mort1936 totsy1938 leg1939 skinny1941 Richard1950 potato1957 scow1960 wimmin1975 womyn1975 womxn1991 society > society and the community > social class > the common people > [noun] > one of the common people > woman wifeeOE woman1458 Tib1533 roturière1753 commoneress1791 eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) iv. xxiv. 332 Hegiu.., seo ærest wiifa [L. feminarum] is sægd in Norðanhymbra mægðe, þæt heo munuchade & haligryfte onfenge. OE Blickling Homilies 5 Seo geofu wæs broht for þære synne þæs ærestan wifes. OE Ælfric Homily: De Duodecim Abusivis (Corpus Cambr. 178) in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 300 Wisdom gerist werum & wifum forþam seo sidefulnyss gescylt hi wið unþeawas. ?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 124 Sein Iohan þebaptiste bi hwam vre lauerd seide...bimong nane wiues bearn ne ras nan betere. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 755 Þa scipen to-draȝen & þa wif [c1300 Otho wimmen] drenchen. c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) 1713 Loke nou, hw god helpen kan O mani wise wif and man. c1330 (?a1300) Guy of Warwick (Auch.) p. 400 Now may me rewe al mi liue. That euer was y born o wiue, Wayle-way þat stounde! c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Miller's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 155 The wyues of the parisshe. c1480 (a1400) St. Mary of Egypt 1067 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 327 I coniure þe, þat it, þat þu has hard of me,..þat þu tel nothyre to man na vyf. a1500 (c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Nero) vi. l. 2235 Þat man is noucht born of wiff Off powar to reff me my lif. 1526 Bible (Tyndale) Rev. xvii. 6 I sawe the wyfe dronke with the bloud of saynctes. c1563 Jack Juggler sig. C.iii Then came I by a wife that did costerds sell. 1570 R. Sempill Regentis Trag. (single sheet) The wyfis that fostred ȝow. a1628 J. Carmichaell Coll. Prov. in Scots (1957) 96 Quhair there is wyves, there are there words. 1721 A. Ramsay Poems I. 100 The Wives came furth, and up they rest him, And fand Life in the Lown. 1794 Har'st Rig lviii. 21 The Embrugh wives them a' exceed For sad mislear'd ill words indeed! 1859 Ld. Tennyson Guinevere in Idylls of King 228 She..shuddered, as the village wife who cries ‘I shudder, some one steps across my grave.’ 1891 Allan's Tyneside Songs (rev. ed.) 550 He went reet ower intiv a basket of eggs and biscuits belangin' tiv an au'd wife. 1934 J. Buchan Free Fishers ii. 39 ‘He is tied to the petticoat tails of a daft wife.’ ‘A wife! He is married then..?’ ‘No, no. There's no marriage. I used our vernacular term for the other sex when we would speak of it without respect.’ 1981 A. Gray Lanark xiii. 132 The village school..had..a kitchen where a wife from the village made flavourless meals. 2004 S. Blackhall Wizard o North 3 A hurricane's blootered Dunoon! Ilkie reeftap blew aff o the toon! They flew past Big Ben at a quarter tae ten, Wi a wife in an auld flannel goon! 2015 C. MacDonald in Lallans 87 74 The skrankie wee wife wi the dry hair an lang drab coat. 2. The female head of a household; (also) the landlady of an inn. Now chiefly in wife of the house (in later use more likely to be understood as sense 4). Cf. goodwife n., housewife n.In quot. OE in the context of distinguishing a housewife's legal responsibilities from her husband's.In quot. c1425: a woman in respect of her ability to manage a household. Cf. husband n. 6. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > drink > providing or serving drink > [noun] > inn or tavern keeping > innkeeper tappera1000 tapsterc1000 wifeOE taverner1340 gannekerc1380 tippler1396 alewifec1400 vintnerc1430 alehouse-keeperc1440 ale-taker1454 innholder1463 cellarman1547 ale draper?1593 pint pot1598 ale-man1600 nick-pot1602 tavern-keeper1611 beer-monger1622 kaniker1630 ordinary keeper1644 padrone1670 tap-lash?1680 ale-dame1694 public house keeper1704 bar-keeper1712 publican1728 tavern-man1755 Boniface1795 knight of the spigot1821 licensed victualler1824 thermopolite1832 bar-keep1846 saloon-keeper1849 posadero1851 Wirt1858 bung1860 changer1876 patron1878 bar-tender1883 soda-jerker1883 bar steward1888 pub-keeper1913 society > inhabiting and dwelling > providing with dwelling > [noun] > with temporary accommodation > innkeeping > innkeeper or hotelier wifeOE hostc1290 hostessc1290 hosteler1350 innkeeperc1449 innholder1463 wardin1493 hosterc1503 hostler?a1505 landlady1654 landlord1724 hoteliera1738 aubergiste1766 roadsider1826 khanji1839 motelier1959 OE Laws of Cnut (Nero) ii. lxxvi. §1. 362 Butan hit [sc. forstolen þingc] under þæs wifes cæglocan gebroht wære, si heo clæne, ac þære cægean heo sceal weardian. c1275 (?c1250) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) (1935) l. 1585 Þe lauerd..Fareþ ut on þare beire nede An is þat gode wif un bliþe For hire lauerdes houd siþe. c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Canon's Yeoman's Tale (Ellesmere) (1875) l. 1015 A preest..Which was so plesaunt and so seruysable Vn-to the wyf where as he was at table That she wolde suffre hym no thyng for to paye. c1425 How Good Wife taught her Daughter (Huntington) (1948) l. 200 Be þou wise wif of þin owen. 1535 Bible (Coverdale) 1 Kings xvii. 17 The sonne of the wife of y^e house was sicke. 1560 H. Machyn Diary (1848) 238 The wyff of the Bell in Gracyous-strett. 1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry ii. f. 48^v The olde husbandes..vsed..to iudge, that where they founde the Garden out of order, the wyfe of the house..was no good huswyfe. 1620 Hist. Frier Rush sig. B4^v He called the wife of the house and said: Mistresse, I pray you fill a pottle of wine. 1662 J. Chandler tr. J. B. van Helmont Oriatrike xxvi. 281 The wife of the Inn laid that woman on a table, with her face placed downwards. 1700 C. Leigh Nat. Hist. Lancs. i. i. 7 Near to him was sitting the Wife of the House, with a little Child upon her Knee. 1763 ‘T. Insulanus’ Treat. Second Sight sig. K2^v The wife of the house, her daughter and servant, are still in life. 1811 F. Fernandez First Dict. Eng. & Spanish Patrona, the wife of the house. 1892 Indiana (Pa.) Progress 8 June The neighbors were gathered and stood around the wife of the house, who was insensible as from some great calamity. 1942 B. Hutchison Unknown Country xiv. 285 The wife of the house wore her hair in the latest fashion, with a snood to support the curls. 1992 R. M. Karras in G. Pálsson From Sagas to Society xvii. 297 The implication is clear that women servants would be considered legitimate prey sexually, and that no one would object to it very much (as they certainly would in the case of the rape of the wife of the house). 2011 A. Patterson in G. Moore Mummer's Wife Pref. 5 We come to know the reading matter of the wife of the household, and its effect upon her expectations of life. 3. Chiefly with preceding qualifying word. A woman engaged in the sale or manufacture of a specified commodity. Now archaic except in established compounds.alewife, apple-wife, dairy-wife, fishwife, oyster wife, pudding-wife, etc.: see the first element.In quot. 1287 in a surname. ΚΠ 1287 in W. Hudson Leet Jurisdict. Norwich (1892) 6 (MED) Gundreda le puddingwyf. c1400 W. Langland Piers Plowman (Cambr. Dd.3.13) (1873) C. ix. l. 330 Ale-wiuys [c1400 Huntington HM 137 Thei wolde non halpeny ale in none wyse drynke Bote of þe best and Brounest þat brewesters sellen]. ?a1450 in Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum (1817) I. 443 (MED) Sche shall pay for a gown to her grome coke and her poding wief by the yere ij s. c1500 Debate Carpenter's Tools in Rev. Eng. Stud. (1987) 38 456 (MED) He wyll not the..He wones to nyȝe the ale-wyffe. ?c1565 Iacke Iugeler (new ed.) sig. Ciii Then came I by a wife that did costerds sell And cast downe hir basket fayre and well. 1583 C. Hollyband Campo di Fior 111 There is a certeine herbe-wife, Of whom if you do buye. 1625 F. Bacon Apophthegmes §54. 73 Strawberrie wiues, that laid two or three great strawberries at the mouth of their pot, and all the rest were little ones. 1631 Act of Common Council City of London 20 July in Jrnls. (Corporation of London) (London Metropolitan Archives: COL/CC/01) XXXV. f. 332 Oyster wives, earbe wives Tripe wives. ?1720 (title) Elegy on the much lamented death of Merry Maggie Wilson, poultry-wife in Edinburgh. 1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Wife, it is used for a woman of low employment. 1818 J. Keats Dawlish Fair in Let. 25 Mar. (1958) I. 256 Where Gingerbread Wives have a scanty sale. 1825 J. T. Brockett Gloss. North Country Words Wife, a woman, whether married or not. ‘An apple wife’,—‘a fish wife’,—‘A tripe wife’. 1908 Chautauquan Oct. 240 Here the plump and soft-hearted cheese-wife is entertaining an admirer. 1994 D. Kovacs tr. Aristophanes in Euripidea 99 Poets ought not to engage in insult like bread-wives. II. A married woman, and related senses. 4. a. (a) The (or a) female partner in a marriage; esp. a married woman considered in relation to her spouse. Used exclusively with reference to mixed-sex marriages until the late 20th cent., and in this context taken as correlative to husband. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife wifeeOE womanc1275 peerc1330 spousessc1384 ladyc1390 good lady1502 girl?a1513 spousage1513 little lady1523 the weaker vessel1526 companion1535 wedlock1566 Mrs1572 dame1574 rib?1590 feme1595 fathom1602 feme covert1602 shrew1606 wife of one's bosom1611 kickie-wickiea1616 heifer1616 sposa1624 bosom-partner1633 goodwife1654 little woman1715 squaw1767 the Mrs1821 missus1823 maw1826 lady wife1840 tart1864 mistress1873 mama1916 ball and chain1921 trouble and strife1929 old boot1958 eOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Otho) (2009) I. vi. 402 Hu ne liofað þin wif [eac], þ[æ]s ilcan Simaches dohtor? OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) i. 185 Ic wille gehealdan þe ænne & þin wif, & þine þry suna..& heora þreo wif. a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 49 Riche men..þe habbeð..feire wifes and feire children. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 13 Noe & Sem Iaphet & Cham. & heore four wiues [c1300 Otho wifes]. a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 1219 God him bad is wiues tale Listen. a1375 (c1350) William of Palerne (1867) l. 242 My menskful moder is his meke wiue. a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 918 Þou, man,..has vndertaken þi wijf red [Gött. þi wiues rede]. a1475 J. Fortescue Governance of Eng. (Laud) (1885) 114 Thair wyfes and childeren. a1500 ( J. Yonge tr. Secreta Secret. (Lamb.) 192 The loue that a vif shold haue to hir spous. 1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue ii. viii. sig. Kii^v A good wife makth a good husbande (they saie). c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) ii. 19 Thou sal spouse ane vyfe, bot ane vthir sal tak hyr fra the. 1580 J. Hay Certaine Demandes conc. Christian Relig. & Discipline 71 Ane of Iacobs vyfues. 1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 16 Slaves unto their wives goods. 1628 E. Coke 1st Pt. Inst. Lawes Eng. i. 112 A man may not grant nor giue his tenements to his Wife during the couerture, for that his Wife and hee bee but one person in the Law. 1628 A. Baillie True Information Vnhallowed Ofspring i. vii. 23 Their vuifes & bairnes. a1635 W. Pole Coll. Descr. Devon (1791) i. 166 S^r. Thomas Beamont..maried 2 wiefs. 1637 Bk. Common Prayer Church of Scotl. Visitation of Sick sig. Q2^v Visit him, O Lord, as thou didst visit Peters wives mother. 1722 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. (1906) VII. 382 He..was drown'd, in the same Place where his Wive's first Husband had been drowned. 1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones III. ix. vii. 363 She past for that Gentleman's Wife,..and yet..there were some Doubts concerning the Reality of their Marriage. View more context for this quotation a1790 B. Franklin Autobiogr. (1981) i. 5 My Father..carried his Wife with three Children unto New England. 1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. I. 158 He had never been married; but he was still on the look-out for a wife with money. 1888 M. F. B. Leighton Husband & Wife I. v. 57 She studied his character, and anticipated his wishes; she was wife, idol, friend, in one. 1924 M. B. Lowndes Terriford Myst. vi. 68 She was the most devoted and generous-natured of wives to me. 1946 New Eng. Q. 19 259 The Prophet..in his last years introduced plural or spiritual wives. 1981 Observer 28 June (Colour Suppl.) 34 What he [sc. Prince Charles] needed most, for the benefit of his public popularity,..was a wife. 2001 Advocate 19 June 10/3 On weekends McDevitt-Pugh cycles along the canals and dikes of the Netherlands with her wife and stepson. 2011 M. Joiner Too Much of Good Woman 205 I opened the front door to see my wife..locked in a passionate kiss with another man. (b) With preceding qualifying word. A wife (sense 4a(a)) defined by her spouse's occupation, esp. one who fulfils official expectations of the role. Frequently with reference to the military, as navy wife, service wife. See also army wife at army n. Compounds 1e. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > wife of one in specific occupation to wifeOE wife1866 1866 Once a Week 24 Nov. 576/2 I could see (what one likes to see in all military wives) that Garnett was, in her opinion, the hero of every campaign in which he had served. 1896 C. King (title) An army wife. 1944 Mich. Alumnus 8 Jan. 215/2 Several of the units now on the Campus have strict rules relative to the coming to Ann Arbor of these service wives. 1981 P. McCutchan Shard calls Tune ii. 18 Beth had been a police wife..and a Foreign Office Security wife... She knew she mustn't ask where Simon was going. 2014 T. Graham et al. Search for HMAS Sydney i. 25/2 Her life as a naval wife lay before her. b. A married woman (or a woman who has been married) distinguished from an unmarried woman or girl, esp. as having had sexual experience. Usually contrasted with maid, virgin, etc. Now archaic and historical. ΚΠ OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) iii. 19 Crist næs na of wife acenned, ac wæs of mædene. OE Poenitentiale Pseudo-Egberti (Laud) ii. xiii. 23 Gif hwa mid his ofercræfte wif oððe mæden neadinga nimð to unrihthæmede hire unwilles, beo he amansumad. c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 2102 Þeȝȝ wenndenn þatt ȝho wære wif Acc ȝho wass maȝȝdenn clene. c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 2 Herknet to me, gode men, Wiues, maydnes, and alle men, Of a tale þat ich you wile telle. a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vi. l. 572 (MED) Ther was no wif ne maiden there..Whom thei ne token to defoule. ?a1475 (a1396) W. Hilton Scale of Perfection (Harl. 6579) i. lx. f. 41 (MED) Prest, clerk, or lewede man, wydue, wyf, or mayden. 1543 J. Bale Yet Course at Romyshe Foxe sig. Kviii Yf ye make a dyfference betwyne wyues and vyrgyns. 1682 T. D'Urfey Royalist ii. ii. 18 Madam; Answer me this Queston? Are you Widow, Wife, or Maid? 1736 Gentleman's Mag. Apr. 221/2 Topaz rare, or diamond fair..At balls display'd, on wife or maid: Thou giv'st to charms a beauteous air. 1833 Waltzburg I. viii. 126 No female, be she maiden or wife, ever enters these secluded walls. 1902 Smart Set Mar. 57 Was she maiden, was she wife, was she wanton, or bold, or shy? 1996 O. H. Hufton Prospect before Her 40 In Protestant literature..chastity was exalted as the most important attribute of the virtuous woman, whether maid, wife or widow. c. figurative in religious contexts. A person or thing (as the Church, a soul, etc.) regarded as symbolically married to God or Christ; (occasionally also) Christ regarded as the spouse of a soul. ΚΠ OE Ælfric Homily (Trin. Cambr. B.15.34) in B. Assmann Angelsächsische Homilien u. Heiligenleben (1889) 76 Þæt wif is her gecweden eall Cristes gelaþung on gastlicum andgite, þe is his agen bryd. c1350 Apocalypse St. John: A Version (Harl. 874) (1961) 161 His wijf haþ dressed hir..Þe spouse of þe lombe bitokeneþ holy chirche. c1400 (?c1380) Pearl l. 790 Þe Lambez vyuez in blysse we bene. a1425 (a1400) in M. Day Wheatley MS (1921) 96 Ihesu.., Teche my soule þat is thi wyfe To loue best..the.., here dere housebonde. a1475 Sidrak & Bokkus (Lansd.) (1998) I. l. 2335 Mannes soule is Goddes wyf. 1641 J. May Epaphras 11 Obedience..makes the soule the wife of its Saviour. 1697 W. Russel Vindic. of Baptized Churches vii. 109 These are the marks of false Churches, and not of the true Spouse and Wife of Christ. 1787 Hist. Worthy Martyr J. Bradford 67 Alphon. What is the Church? Brad. Christ's wife, the chair and seat of virtue. 1828 A. Boniface Dictionnaire français-anglais et anglais-français I. 490/1 The nuns are the wives of Christ. 1917 Herald of Gospel Liberty 29 Mar. 302/1 If Christ is the husband, and the Church the wife, His name must be hers. 2009 C. Christiansen in F. Becker & P. W. Geissler Aids & Relig. Pract. in Afr. 108 The pastor gave her a golden ring to wear on her ring finger. ‘It was a wonderful Sunday when I became a wife of Christ,’ Proscovia said. 5. A woman who has a long-term sexual relationship with a man to whom she is not married; a mistress; a concubine.Now only with preceding modifying word. See also field wife n. (b) at field n.¹ Compounds 5, liberty-wife n. at liberty n.¹ Compounds 2.In early use chiefly with reference to the concubines of priests. In early use the marital status of these was still a matter of dispute; compare quot. lOE. ΘΚΠ society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > [noun] > illicit intimacy > person > a mistress chevesea700 wifeOE bed-sister1297 concubine1297 leman1297 file1303 speciala1400 womanc1400 chamberer?a1425 mistress?a1439 cousin1470 doxy?1515 doll1560 pinnacea1568 nobsya1575 lier-by1583 sweetheart1589 she-friend1600 miss1606 underput1607 concupy1609 lig-by1610 factoress1611 leveret1617 night-piece1621 belly-piece1632 dolly1648 lie-bya1656 madamc1660 small girl1671 natural1674 convenient1676 lady of the lake1678 pure1688 tackle1688 sultana1703 kind girl1712 bosom-slave1728 pop1785 chère amie1792 fancy-woman1819 hetaera1820 fancy-piece1821 poplolly1821 secondary wife1847 other woman1855 fancy-girl1892 querida1902 wifelet1983 OE Laws: Norðhymbra Preosta Lagu (Corpus Cambr.) lxi. 384 And we forbeodað on Godes forbode, þæt nan man na ma wifa næbbe buton i. lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough contin.) anno 1129 Þa weorð hit eall of earcedæcnes wifes & of preostes wifes þet hi scolden hi forlæten be Sanctes Andreas messe. c1275 Lutel Soth Serm. (Calig.) l. 49 in R. Morris Old Eng. Misc. (1872) 188 (MED) Alle prestes wifes, ich wot heo beoþ for-lore. c1300 (c1250) Floris & Blauncheflur (Cambr.) (1966) l. 266 Ne bu his [sc. the Emir's] wif neure so schene, Bute o ȝer ne schal heo beon his Quene, þeȝ heo luue him ase hire lif, þat he nele habbe anoþer wif. a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) l. 8028 (MED) Y haue lyued a synful lyfe And haue be called a prestes wyfe. ?a1475 in C. D. Eckhardt Prophetia Merlini (1982) 80 (MED) In this king henryes tyme prestes paied a pension of gold..for to pardon hem of their wyfes. 1567 T. Stapleton Counterblast iii. xvi. f. 280^v Such as being Priestes kept whores and concubines, which you now call wyues. M. Horne, to saue your Madges poore honesty. 1679 Domestick Intelligence 2 Dec. He hath lived with a wife or woman for some years, by whom he hath had two or three children. 1847 H. S. Chapman Let. 24 Nov. in J. Miller Early Victorian N.Z. (1958) x. 141 Maori wives..the conventional name for a Maori mistress. 1915 Washington Post 17 Jan. 18/2 His ‘love wife’ will be acquitted, he is quoted as saying substantially, by his friend. 1991 Rolling Stone 28 Nov. 65/1 ‘Minor wives’—concubines, mistresses—are still a sign of status in Thai society. 2004 G. Jen Love Wife ix. 189 She was not even my grandfather's wife, exactly, but a love wife—a concubine—his favorite. 6. In extended use with reference to birds or other animals: a female that is mating or has mated with a male. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > family unit > [noun] > female > female mate wifeOE woman1577 mistress1692 OE tr. Medicina de Quadrupedibus (Vitell.) v. 250 Wif to geeacnigenne haran cyslybb feower penega gewæge syle on wine drincan þam wife of wife [L. feminae de femina; i.e. to the woman from a female hare] & þam were of were & þonne don hyra gemanan. a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xviii. lxxvi. 1229 Among cattes in tyme of loue is hard fightynge for wyues. c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Nun's Priest's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 63 As Chauntecler among hise wyues alle Sat on his perche. tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) i. l. 669 (MED) Fesauntis..first in Marche vppon they go Theyr wyuys. 1513 G. Douglas in tr. Virgil Æneid xii. Prol. 159 Phebus red fowle..Pykland his meyt..Hys wifis, Toppa and Pertelok, hym by. 1648 R. Herrick Hesperides sig. R5^v Cock calls his Wife his Hen. 1657 G. Thornley tr. Longus Daphnis & Chloe 125 The he-goats..every one had his own wives. 1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 450 Twitch'd from the perch, He gives the princely bird, with all his wives, To his voracious bag. 1838 Lett. from Madras (1843) 194 The monkeys were in a rage... The old father hunted his wife and children up the tree. ?1870 P. M. Duncan Transformations Insects xvi. 436 Wives appear to be at a premium amongst these spiders. 1887 Cent. Mag. Mar. 677/1 The song-birds..making the..wood merry with their carolings to the wives and younglings in the nests. 1917 P. MacGill Soldier Songs 68 And a robin sits by with a vigilant eye On a grim garden-spider's wife. 1963 F. Mowat Never cry Wolf ix. 91 His wife was equally memorable. A slim, almost pure-white wolf with a thick ruff around her face. 1979 M. M. Nice Research is Passion with Me 3 We believed him [sc. an Indigo Bunting] to be a bachelor until we happened upon the nest and thus discovered his plain brown wife. 7. a. In (esp. same-sex) relationships, other than marriage, in which the two partners are regarded as occupying roles analogous to those in a traditional mixed-sex marriage: the person assuming the role regarded as more stereotypically feminine, i.e. as being equivalent to that of the wife (sense 4a). Cf. husband n. 2b.Earliest with reference to the ‘marriages’ with male favourites allegedly entered into by some Roman emperors. Cf. husband n. 2b. ΘΚΠ the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > sexual orientation > homosexuality > [noun] > a homosexual person > male > who takes on a more passive role wife1549 whore1609 pogue1919 queen1919 old lady1937 she-male1952 1549 T. Cooper Lanquet's Epitome of Crons. iii. f. 99^v He [sc. Nero] toke in open mariage a boye of excellent fauour, named Sporus, and vsed hym as his wyfe. 1636 R. Basset tr. G. A. de Paoli Lives Rom. Emperors 181 Nero Caesar..had a Boy cut, as if hee would have transformed him into a Woman, and called him wife. 1692 O. Walker Greek & Rom. Hist. ii. xiii. 250 [Elagabalus] clothed himself like a Woman, was married to a vile Man, and used as his Wife. 1754 W. Hay Deformity 67 Silius was converted by the insatiable Messalina into a Husband: and Sporus by the Monster Nero into a Wife. 1838 Jackson's Oxf. Jrnl. 21 Apr. She [sc. a woman who has been passing as a married man] vehemently refuses to consent that any sum shall be set apart as a provision for her so-called wife. 1883 W. A. Hammond Sexual Impotence in Male i. 57 The one who was in this disgusting arrangement to act the part of ‘husband’ came to his ‘wife's’ bed and remained there during the night. 1942 Billboard 23 May 10/1 Sapiens, as the ‘wife’ [of Hippolyta], stays at home while his ‘husband’, as king, reigns. 1957 H. R. Danforth & J. D. Horan D.A.'s Man (1958) i. 3 He's got a new girl. His ‘wife’ went home last week. 1978 J. Hyams Pool xiii. 199 The group's leader..made his ‘wife’ head of production. 2000 C. Calhoun Feminism, Family, Politics of Closet (2002) iii. 66 Who among these women have the most power to represent..the lesbian—the feminine women (the wives) or the cross-dressed women (the husbands)? 2010 M. Kramer in S. Habib Islam & Homosexuality I. vii. 138 At his request, I was the husband and he was the wife. b. Used to denote either partner in a (generally long-term) relationship between two women.Here referring to a relationship other than a marriage, or (in later use) to a relationship regardless of whether or not it is a marriage. For uses explicitly referring to women who are married to one another see sense 4a. ΚΠ 1896 A. W. Grimké in G. Beemyn Queer Capital (2015) ii. 72 I hope beloved that in a few years you will come to me and be my love my wife! 1916 Harvard Advocate 25 Feb. 200/1 ‘You're a liar,’ said the girl calmly... ‘I'm that woman's wife, that's who I am.’ 1993 K. Ainis in S. Pollack & D. D. Knight Contemp. Lesbian Writers U.S. 560 Jess Wells has been with her partner, Sharon, whom she calls her ‘wife’, since 1984. 2012 E. D. B. Riggle & S. S. Rostosky Positive View of LGBTQ vi. 83 A 33-year-old lesbian living in Colorado who has been with her wife for eight years shares how they have grown together during their relationship. †8. Used as a term of affection for a close female friend (esp. of a man). Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > love > terms of endearment > [noun] > of or to a girl > used of or to female friend wife1592 noona1975 unni1997 1592 in W. Greenwell Wills & Inventories Registry Durham (1860) II. 205 To Mrs. Clopton one old ryall, to hir daughter, my wiffe, Alice, one angell. 1601 J. Chamberlain Let. 27 May in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. (1898) Nov. 654/2 I came lately thence..about a match for my wife, which is since dispatcht with younge Gifford. 1692 H. N. Payne Let. 29 May in Navil Payn's Let. (1693) 8 My Love, Duty and Service too to you, your Good-sister, Brother, my Little Wife, James, Archibald, Mrs. Ann and Mrs. Lilias. 1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones VI. xvii. ii. 97 Her little Girl, whose Eyes were all over blubbered at the melancholy News she heard of Jones, who used to call her his little Wife . View more context for this quotation 1796 W. Cole Contradiction 119 Then Little Fred, said I, Mr Great-boots will be off—Take care of my little wife, your sister—Adieu! 1822 C. Lamb Let. 13 Nov. (1935) II. 347 This is a mere letter of business—so I will just send my love to my little wife at Versailles, to her dear mother, &c. 9. a. Something likened to a wife in some way, esp. in being a constant companion. Cf. Dutch wife n. at Dutch adj., n.¹, and adv. Compounds 2b. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > relationship > accompaniment > [noun] > that which accompanies purtenancea1382 accessory1429 retinue?a1439 accessaryc1475 companion1533 annexe?1541 hanger-ona1555 supply1567 copemate1581 complement1586 fere1593 adjective1597 annexment1604 annexary1605 attendant1607 adherence1610 adjacent1610 wife1616 fellower1620 coincident1626 attendancy1654 associate1658 appanage1663 conjunct1667 perquisite1667 familiar1668 satellite1702 accompaniment1709 accompanying1761 side dish1775 obbligato1825 shadow1830 rider1859 gadget1917 society > authority > subjection > restraint or restraining > restraint depriving of liberty > binding or fettering > [noun] > bond(s) or fetter(s) or shackle(s) > for the feet or legs copsa700 fetterc800 gyvec1275 bolt1483 boysc1485 hose-ring?1515 hopshacklea1568 gin?1587 leg ring1606 hamper1613 shacklock1613 wife1616 pedicle1628 leg iron1779 wife1811 leg lock1815 ankle ring1823 anklet1835 hopple1888 Oregon boot1892 1616 R. Sheldon Suruey Miracles Church of Rome i. 30 He [sc. a priest] affirmed himselfe, to be a married man; his meaning was, that his wife was his breuiarie; and that hee had beene married vnto it, twelue yeares. 1672 J. Evelyn tr. R. Rapin Of Gardens 50 Near Paris, where the rapid Sein do's glide, In a sub urban Villa did reside A single man; his Garden was his Wife. 1813 in J. G. Brighton Admiral of Fleet (1892) 45 He was proud, too, of his wooden wife, as he sometimes called his ship. 1859 Habits Good Society (new ed.) vii. 254 The pipe is the bachelor's wife. 2005 G. R. R. Martin Feast for Crows 37 Only when both edges [of the axe] were sharp enough to shave with did the captain lay his ash-and-iron wife down on the bed. b. slang. A shackle for the leg; a leg iron. Cf. ball and chain n. 1. Now rare. ΘΚΠ society > authority > subjection > restraint or restraining > restraint depriving of liberty > binding or fettering > [noun] > bond(s) or fetter(s) or shackle(s) > for the feet or legs copsa700 fetterc800 gyvec1275 bolt1483 boysc1485 hose-ring?1515 hopshacklea1568 gin?1587 leg ring1606 hamper1613 shacklock1613 wife1616 pedicle1628 leg iron1779 wife1811 leg lock1815 ankle ring1823 anklet1835 hopple1888 Oregon boot1892 1811 Lexicon Balatronicum Wife, a fetter fixed to one leg. 1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 195 Wife, the ball and chain used to prevent escape from a road or ‘chain’ gang. 10. Originally: †the red underwing moth, Catocala nupta (obsolete rare). In later use (with distinguishing word): either of two other North American underwing moths of the genus Catocala, C. muliercula (in full little wife) and C. palaeogama (in full oldwife underwing). ΘΚΠ the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Heterocera > [noun] > family Noctuidae > member of subfamily Catocalinae (underwing) > catocala nupta (red-underwing) red underwing1720 bride1832 wife1832 1832 J. Rennie Conspectus Butterflies & Moths Brit. 99 The Wife (C. Nupta, Ochsenheimer) appears among willows the beginning of August. 1903 W. J. Holland Moth Bk. 267 Catocala muliercula..The Little Wife. 1906 W. T. M. Forbes Field Tables Lepidoptera 133 Orange spots on two rear joints below. Old-wife underwing. Catocala palæogama. 2008 M. Winn Central Park in Dark v. 104 We'd added two new underwing moths to our Central Park list: the oldwife underwing (Catocala palaeogama) and the clouded underwing (Catocala nebulosa). 2011 D. L. Wagner et al. Owlet Caterpillars Eastern North Amer. 109 (heading) Coloration is exceptionally variable across the group, which includes the Sweetfern Underwing..and The Little Wife (C. muliercula). Phrases P1. a. to wife: as a wife, for a wife, so as to be one's wife. Frequently in to have (also hold) to wife: to have as one's wife, to be the husband of. Now archaic. ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > woman > [noun] wifeeOE womaneOE womanOE queanOE brideOE viragoc1000 to wifeOE burdc1225 ladyc1225 carlinec1375 stotc1386 marec1387 pigsneyc1390 fellowa1393 piecec1400 femalea1425 goddessa1450 fairc1450 womankindc1450 fellowessa1500 femininea1513 tega1529 sister?1532 minikinc1540 wyec1540 placket1547 pig's eye1553 hen?1555 ware1558 pussy?a1560 jade1560 feme1566 gentlewoman1567 mort1567 pinnacea1568 jug1569 rowen1575 tarleather1575 mumps1576 skirt1578 piga1586 rib?1590 puppy1592 smock1592 maness1594 sloy1596 Madonna1602 moll1604 periwinkle1604 Partlet1607 rib of man1609 womanship?1609 modicum1611 Gypsy1612 petticoata1616 runniona1616 birda1627 lucky1629 she-man1640 her1646 lost rib1647 uptails1671 cow1696 tittup1696 cummer17.. wife1702 she-woman1703 person1704 molly1706 fusby1707 goody1708 riding hood1718 birdie1720 faggot1722 piece of goods1727 woman body1771 she-male1776 biddy1785 bitch1785 covess1789 gin1790 pintail1792 buer1807 femme1814 bibi1816 Judy1819 a bit (also bundle) of muslin1823 wifie1823 craft1829 shickster?1834 heifer1835 mot1837 tit1837 Sitt1838 strap1842 hay-bag1851 bint1855 popsy1855 tart1864 woman's woman1868 to deliver the goods1870 chapess1871 Dona1874 girl1878 ladykind1878 mivvy1881 dudess1883 dudette1883 dudine1883 tid1888 totty1890 tootsy1895 floozy1899 dame1902 jane1906 Tom1906 frail1908 bit of stuff1909 quim1909 babe1911 broad1914 muff1914 manhole1916 number1919 rossie1922 bit1923 man's woman1928 scupper1935 split1935 rye mort1936 totsy1938 leg1939 skinny1941 Richard1950 potato1957 scow1960 wimmin1975 womyn1975 womxn1991 the world > relative properties > kind or sort > generality > [noun] > the generality > everyone allOE to wifeOE everya1250 young and olda1400 everybodyc1405 all hands1655 tout le monde1825 society > faith > artefacts > consumables > candle or light > [noun] > maintained by married women to wifeOE society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [phrase] > for or as one's wife to wifeOE society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > wife of one in specific occupation to wifeOE wife1866 OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xiv. 4 Iohannes him sæde, nys þe alyfed hi to wife to hæbbenne [L. habere eam]. c1225 (?c1200) St. Margaret (Bodl.) (1934) 6 (MED) Ich hire wule habben & halden to wiue. a1275 St. Margaret (Trin. Cambr.) l. 36 in A. S. M. Clark Seint Maregrete & Body & Soul (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Michigan) (1972) 15 Sone wolde þe sarezin habben hire to wiue. c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 12815 He heo nabbe to wife. a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 2147 Iosep to wiue his dowter nam. a1350 in R. H. Robbins Hist. Poems 14th & 15th Cent. (1959) 26 (MED) Þou shalt me wedde & welde to wyf. a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. l. 2686 (MED) This Steward..A lusti ladi hath to wyve. 1415 in J. B. Paul Registrum Magni Sigilli Scotorum (1882) II. 39/1 Huchon Fraser..God grantand, sal lede in to wyf Jonet of Fentoun. c1440 (?a1400) Morte Arthure l. 3575 (MED) He has weddyde Waynore, and hyr to wyefe holdes. c1450 (a1425) Metrical Paraphr. Old Test. (Selden) l. 9653 (MED) He toyȝt myght he hyre to wyfe win. a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) I. vi. clxxxvii. f. cxiv/2 Thys kynge Edwarde had a noble woman to wyfe named Elgina of whom he receyued two sonnes. 1526 Bible (Tyndale) Mark xii. f. lxiij In the resurrecion then..whose wyfe shall she be of them? For seven had her to wyfe. 1588 R. Greene Pandosto sig. A3 This Pandosto had to Wife a Ladie called Bellaria. 1635 Relation of Maryland v. 28 He that would have a wife, treates with the father, or if he be dead, with the friend that takes care of her whom he desires to have to wife. 1645 J. Milton Il Penseroso in Poems 41 Who had Canace to wife. 1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World xiv. 388 Mr. Fitz-Gerald had in this time gotten a Spanish Mustesa Woman to Wife. 1726 A. Pope tr. Homer Odyssey V. xxi. 73 If I the prize, if me you seek to wife. 1768 Universal Mag. May 254/1 He had to wife Anne, daughter to Henry Somerset, Earl of Worcester. 1856 C. Le Quesne Constit. Hist. Jersey iii. 85 John de Hingeham offers to the lord the king 200 marks to have to wife the daughter of Walter Walerand. 1867 J. Ingelow Story of Doom 115 I will to wife choose me a stately maid. 1964 Tulane Drama Rev. 8 151 Faustus in hell will have to wife a devil bride. 1990 S. Sondheim in J. L. Gordon Art isn't Easy x. 310 I must have her to wife. b. to take (in early use (i-)nim) to wife: to marry (a woman). Now archaic. ΚΠ OE Ælfric Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Laud) Pref. 76 On anginne þisere worulde nam se broþer hys swuster to wife. lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) anno 1100 Se cyng genam Mahalde him to wife. ?a1160 Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough contin.) anno 1140 He toc hire to wiue. a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 2764 To wife in lage he hire nam. a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1961) Lev. xxi. 7 A strumpet & foule hoordam ȝe shollen not take to wife. a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. vi. xiii. 308 He..spousiþ hire wiþ a ring and takeþ hire to wif. 1535 Bible (Coverdale) Lev. xxi. 14 No wedowe, ner deuorsed, ner defyled..but a virgin of his awne people shal he take to wife. 1591 (?a1425) Annunciation & Nativity (Huntington) in R. M. Lumiansky & D. Mill Chester Myst. Cycle (1974) I. 103 (MED) God, lett never an [MS and] ould man take to wife a yonge woman. 1648 M. Prideaux & J. Prideaux Easy & Compend. Introd. Hist. 216 He took to Wife Eudocia, the Daughter of one Leontius a Philosopher. 1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 80. ⁋3 She..was taken to Wife by a Gentleman. 1797 J. Wentworth Compl. Syst. Pleading II. 489 He the said defendant would intermarry with and take to wife her the said plaintiff, within the space of one month. 1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. ii. 231 James had..taken to wife the princess Mary of Modena. 1907 C. Hill-Tout Brit. N. Amer., Far West x. 182 Early marriages were..the custom, the girls being often barely pubescent when taken to wife. 1962 J. Dillenberger Martin Luther p. xxiv It is common knowledge that..Luther took to wife one of the nuns who apparently would settle for nothing less than Luther himself. 2009 K. Whitfield In Great Waters iv. 40 The Doge of Venice, Oberlerio, took to wife a Frankish bride. c. †to give (also forgive, grant) to wife: to give (a woman) in marriage. Obsolete. ΚΠ OE Ælfric Lives of Saints (Julius) (1881) I. 432 Æðeldryð wearð þa forgifen anum ealdormenn to wife. lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough contin.) anno 1126 Mid him com se cwen & his dohter þæt he æror hafde giuen þone kasere Heanri onf [read of] Loherenge to wife. a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 7482 I suld..giue mi doghter him to wijf. c1405 (c1385) G. Chaucer Knight's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 1002 Thanne shal I yeue Emelye to wyue. 1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid vii. viii. 61 Bot he the grant to wyf his child Lavine. 1586 W. Warner Albions Eng. ii. vii. 28 All Aetolia was fild with Hercules his praise, To whom the king did giue to Wife faire Deanira. 1659 R. P. tr. D. Petau Hist. World viii. xv. 333 He had concluded a league and friendship with Peter King of the Bulgarians, to whom he gave to wife his Neece Christopher's daughter. 1698 A. Tooke tr. F. Pomey Pantheon (ed. 2) iv. iii. 351 Hercules..taking Hippolyte their Queen Prisoner, gave her to Wife to Theseus. a1792 T. Falconer Chronological Tables (1796) 25 Pharaoh..had given him the sister of his queen Tahpenes to wife. 1840 Judges of Israel (ed. 2) viii. 91 What was the family of one to whom his daughter was likely to be given to wife. 1872 W. F. Skene tr. John of Fordun Fordun's Chron. v. xxxi. 222 The empress Matilda..came back to her father Henry, king of England; and the latter afterwards gave her to wife to Geoffroy, Count of Anjou. d. †to will to wife: to desire to marry (a woman). Obsolete. ΚΠ a1275 St. Margaret (Trin. Cambr.) l. 52 in A. S. M. Clark Seint Maregrete & Body & Soul (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Michigan) (1972) 19 He williet þe to wiue. c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 8926 (MED) Þe emperour of alimayne willede to wiue [a1425 Pepys his wiff, ?a1425 Digby his wyfe] Mold þe kinges doȝter. c1390 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. iii. l. 106 Ȝif he wilne þe to wyf wolt þou him haue? P2. Paired with mother in reference to a woman's traditional role within a family. Esp. in wife and mother. ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > woman > [noun] wifeeOE womaneOE womanOE queanOE brideOE viragoc1000 to wifeOE burdc1225 ladyc1225 carlinec1375 stotc1386 marec1387 pigsneyc1390 fellowa1393 piecec1400 femalea1425 goddessa1450 fairc1450 womankindc1450 fellowessa1500 femininea1513 tega1529 sister?1532 minikinc1540 wyec1540 placket1547 pig's eye1553 hen?1555 ware1558 pussy?a1560 jade1560 feme1566 gentlewoman1567 mort1567 pinnacea1568 jug1569 rowen1575 tarleather1575 mumps1576 skirt1578 piga1586 rib?1590 puppy1592 smock1592 maness1594 sloy1596 Madonna1602 moll1604 periwinkle1604 Partlet1607 rib of man1609 womanship?1609 modicum1611 Gypsy1612 petticoata1616 runniona1616 birda1627 lucky1629 she-man1640 her1646 lost rib1647 uptails1671 cow1696 tittup1696 cummer17.. wife1702 she-woman1703 person1704 molly1706 fusby1707 goody1708 riding hood1718 birdie1720 faggot1722 piece of goods1727 woman body1771 she-male1776 biddy1785 bitch1785 covess1789 gin1790 pintail1792 buer1807 femme1814 bibi1816 Judy1819 a bit (also bundle) of muslin1823 wifie1823 craft1829 shickster?1834 heifer1835 mot1837 tit1837 Sitt1838 strap1842 hay-bag1851 bint1855 popsy1855 tart1864 woman's woman1868 to deliver the goods1870 chapess1871 Dona1874 girl1878 ladykind1878 mivvy1881 dudess1883 dudette1883 dudine1883 tid1888 totty1890 tootsy1895 floozy1899 dame1902 jane1906 Tom1906 frail1908 bit of stuff1909 quim1909 babe1911 broad1914 muff1914 manhole1916 number1919 rossie1922 bit1923 man's woman1928 scupper1935 split1935 rye mort1936 totsy1938 leg1939 skinny1941 Richard1950 potato1957 scow1960 wimmin1975 womyn1975 womxn1991 1702 E. Sherburne in tr. Seneca Trag. (new ed.) 89 (note) When she cast off the Duty and Affection of a Daughter, as now of a Wife and Mother. 1799 Montrose I. xx. 250 Ye cannot—shall not—blemish the innocence of an exemplary wife and mother by your notorious calumny. 1850 E. C. Gaskell Let. Apr. (1966) 108 One of my mes is..a true Christian..another of my mes is a wife and mother, and highly delighted at the delight of everyone else in the house. 1899 Western Mail (Cardiff) 7 Dec. 7/2 Mrs. Benjamin's conduct was anything but that of a wife and mother. She was frequently the worse for drink. 1930 A. Christie Murder at Vicarage xxxii. 252 I'm going to be a real ‘wife and mother’ (as they say in books). 1983 L. B. Rubin Intimate Strangers (1984) ii. 31 I'm not being that perfect little wife and mother. 2014 Radio Times 18 Jan. (South/West ed.) 130/2 Greer's descriptions in the book of the role of the conventional wife and mother are bleak and doomy. P3. a wife in every port and variants: used allusively to refer to the numerous and geographically widespread lovers or sexual partners of a sailor (or, in later use, anyone who travels widely). ΘΚΠ society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > [phrase] > relations enjoyed by sailors a wife in every portc1690 c1690 Mothers Kindness (single sheet) A Saylor is a cunning Knave, who does all sorts of women Court, It is well known that they will have, a wife or friend at e'ery Port. 1761 I. Bickerstaff Thomas & Sally i. iii. 5 'Tis pretty sport, for one that gets a wife at ev'ry port. 1806 Universal Mag. New Ser. May 429/2 If it be true, as asserted of the heroes of the ocean, that they find a wife in every port, it is as certainly true of those ramblers, the modern minstrels, that they find a mistress in every country. 1878 W. H. Mallock New Paul & Virginia (ed. 2) iv. 24 The captain in particular, who had a wife in every port he touched at, was overjoyed at hearing that there was no hell. 1907 Punch 22 May 365/2 (caption) Admiral. And what made you wish to become a sailor, my boy? Navy Candidate (in perfect good faith). Because he's got a wife in every port, sir. 1933 E. Œ. Somerville & ‘M. Ross’ Smile & Tear xi. 132 ‘The wife in every port’, supposed to be the perquisite of sailors, is no more than the constant aspiration of every self-respecting dog. 1985 Econ. & Polit. Weekly 5 Jan. 6/3 His friend Arjuna like a sailor has a wife in every port. 2011 J. Balcom in tr. Huang Fan Zero & Other Fictions p. ix Huang has simply taken real-life accounts of Taiwanese businessmen with a wife in every port and produced an allegory in which [etc.]. P4. colloquial. With singular and plural agreement. (all) the world and his wife: a large and miscellaneous group of people; everybody. Cf. world n. Phrases 6b(a). ΚΠ 1730 Daily Post 30 June (advt.) A Defence of Hen-pecks: Or, All the World and his Wife. 1738 J. Swift Compl. Coll. Genteel Conversat. 192 Miss. Pray, Madam, who were the Company? Lady Smart. Why, there was all the World, and his Wife. 1790 ‘A. Pasquin’ Postscript to New Bath Guide vi. 55 For this Hostess invites—all the world and his wife. 1822 Ld. Byron Let. 12 Jan. (1979) IX. 85 ‘All the World and his Wife’..as the proverb goes—were trying to trample upon me. 1864 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865) I. i. xvii. 157 All the world and his wife and daughter leave cards. 1912 World 7 May 701/1 So much has been heard of Hardelot lately..that its name must be familiar to all the world and his wife. 1946 N. Coward One, Two, Three in B. Day N. Coward: Compl. Lyrics (1998) 242/3 All the world and his wife Seemed to take a new life From that absurd—hurdy-gurdy little tune. 2000 D. Peace Nineteen Seventy-seven (2001) 295 I feel like a right prick stood out there for all the world and his wife to see. 2007 Opera Now Mar. 47/1 The world and his wife, as they said at the Press Office, were clamouring for tickets. P5. wife of one's bosom: see bosom n. 1c. wife of the left hand: see wife of the left hand n. at left hand n. and adj. Phrases 3a. man and wife: see man n.¹ 8a. Compounds C1. a. General attributive and objective. wife murder n. ΚΠ 1653 Bloody Husband, & Cruell Neigbour 12 The cry of Richard Langley's blood did move the blood-avenging God to leave Mr Sprackling to fall to that Wife-murther. 1871 C. Kingsley At Last x. 233 Wife-murder is but too common among these Hindoos. 1956 Bradford (Pa.) Era 1 June 1 Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard..must serve out a life sentence for wife-murder. 2011 L. Tolton in D. Majstorović & I. Lassen Living with Patriarchy i. 40 The usual motivation for wife murder is a man's loss of control over his wife's sexuality. wife-purchase n. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > wedding or nuptials > [noun] > manner of marrying > bride-purchase bride purchasea1860 wife-purchase1862 lobola1897 1862 W. Russell Undiscovered Crimes 222 The marriage, spite of the plain face, the unlovely form, and the huckstering wife-purchase and sale, was a happy one. 1935 Robstown (Texas) Record 21 Feb. 2/5 Missionarys [sic] discourage but do not prohibit the custom of ‘wife purchase’. 2000 S. Bellow Ravelstein 193 The researcher who recorded all this said they were a currency used in wife-purchase. wife-seeker n. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > seeking marriage > [noun] > seeking a wife > one who wife hunter1752 wife-seeker1788 1788 Reflector I. x. 78 Let us consider what qualities it is in our fair female game, which makes them seem most tempting to those keen poachers, the wife seekers. 1859 K. Cornwallis Panorama New World I. 231 The profession of the wife-seeker was greatly in his favor. 1966 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 8 May 3 She's enough to convert any confirmed bachelor into an ardent wife-seeker. 2013 National (Abu Dhabi) (Nexis) 13 Nov. Wife-seekers of the past would specify relatively more non-physical attributes, like: being pious, from a good family and kind-hearted. wife-slaughter n. ΚΠ 1609 Bible (Douay) I. Num. v. Comm. God ordained this law..to avoid wiveslaughter. 1846 T. D. Gregg Free Thoughts on Protestant Matters v. 76/1 The wholesale wife-slaughter of Henry VIII. 1920 L. J. Miln Feast of Lanterns ix. 62 Ping-yang sank down on her heels in a frenzy of weeping that seemed to indicate prompt fulfillment of the prediction of Ch'êng Hsu's wife-slaughter. 2005 W. Deverell April Fool (2006) v. 54 There's a former jail guard waiting sentencing..for manslaughter or, in his case, wifeslaughter. b. Appositive. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > wife who is also something else wifec1330 trophy wife1973 c1330 (?c1300) Bevis of Hampton (Auch.) l. 310 (MED) Alle wif houren..Þe deuel of helle ich hii be-take. 1843 City of London Mag. Jan. 239 She had become that worst of all slaves, a wife-slave. 1902 Westm. Gaz. 6 Aug. 1/3 He retires from work..and purchases wife-slaves to maintain him in idleness. 1976 B. F. Dukore Where Laughter Stops 35 In the second part of the play, husband-lover and wife-whore play a variety of sexual games. 1998 M. E. John in J. Nair & M. E. John Question of Silence 379 His conjugal desire comes to be fully reciprocated by the wife-heroine. c. Instrumental. ΚΠ ?1614 G. Chapman tr. Homer Odysses xi. 168 She brought her wife-awd husband, Neleus. 1647 N. Ward Simple Cobler Aggawam 27 Our considerate, I dare not say wife-worne Commons. 1855 R. C. Singleton tr. Virgil Aeneid iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. I. 365 Dost thou now Foundations of the stately Carthage lay, And, wife-besotted, art thou rearing up Her beauteous city? 1861 W. Thornbury Cross Country xi. 111 Charles I., that melancholy and wife-ruled bigot. 1983 J. Wainwright Spiral Staircase 131 Dick Sullivan was wife-dominated. C2. Compounds with wife. wife basher n. colloquial (now chiefly Australian) = wife-beater n. 1. ΚΠ 1893 New Rev. July 47 The wife-basher, who attacks his victim with a poker. 1979 J. Wainwright Tension 98 She walked to the home of the ‘wife-basher’..and..went into action. 2014 Geelong (Austral.) Advertiser (Nexis) 2 May 35 Jaywalkers, way up there with child abusers, wife bashers and drug dealers. Fantastic use of resources. wife bashing n. colloquial (now chiefly Australian) = wife-beating n. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > hostile action or attack > [noun] > upon specific types of person wife-beating1650 wife bashing1898 queerbaiting1956 Paki-bashing1970 queer-bashing1970 wife-battering1973 granny bashing1974 granny battering1975 gay-bashing1977 Paki-busting1977 1898 Sketch 11 May 121 Those whom the doctor cured—cured of a drink habit or taste for wife-‘bashing’—died soon after the cure. 1978 J. Wainwright Thief of Time 221 ‘Why should some wandering female run to the nearest doctor?’..‘Wife-bashing. Unwanted pregnancy. A score of reasons.’ 2014 Afr. News (Nexis) 26 Nov. It should be expressly understood that wife bashing is a criminal offence that is punishable by law. wife-battering n. = wife-beating n. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > hostile action or attack > [noun] > upon specific types of person wife-beating1650 wife bashing1898 queerbaiting1956 Paki-bashing1970 queer-bashing1970 wife-battering1973 granny bashing1974 granny battering1975 gay-bashing1977 Paki-busting1977 1973 Irish Times 18 June 7/6 He is asking the British Home Secretary..for an inquiry into wife battering. 2015 Globe & Mail (Canada) (Nexis) 31 Jan. f1 Canadian and U.S. courts treated wife-battering mostly as a private family matter until the 1970s. wife-bound adj. bound in marriage to a woman; limited or restricted, esp. in one's travel or activities, by a wife. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married man > [adjective] wife-bounda1547 wived1556 society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married man > [adjective] > relating to a husband > henpecked wifish1607 woman-tireda1616 henpecked1660 wife-ridden1685 wife-bound1820 petticoat-governed1832 pussy-whipped1953 a1547 Earl of Surrey tr. Virgil Certain Bks. Aenæis (1557) iv. sig. Eiii A wifebound [L. uxorius] man. 1820 J. Keats Let. 28 Jan. (1958) II. 247 Henry is wife-bound in Cambden Town there is no getting him out. 1950 Princeton Alumni Weekly 17 Feb. 30/1 Morgan Bird..is wife-bound as of January 7. Her name was Diane Moore. wife broker n. a person who finds marriageable women for a fee; a marriage broker. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > match-making > [noun] > match-maker broker1377 marriage-maker1591 proxenete1609 matcher1611 ring-carriera1616 matchmaker1638 match-broker1640 marriage broker1662 marriage-bawd1676 match-monger1680 flesh-broker1699 wife broker1700 black-sole1725 marriage-monger?1748 Blackfoot1808 blackleg1825 1700 T. Brown Amusem. Serious & Comical vii. 78 These Marriage Hucksters, or Wife-Brokers. 1877 Belfast News-let. 29 Mar. Powell Slade became wife-broker, and brought forward his servant girl.., 17 years old. 2014 Phnom Penh (Cambodia) Post (Nexis) 7 Aug. (headline) Trafficking charges for wife broker. † wife-carl n. Scottish Obsolete a man who occupies himself with work of a domestic nature, or work traditionally done by women; cf. cotquean n. 3. ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > man > [noun] > man who does domestic or household work wife-carl?1507 cotquean1597 cot1699 ?1507 W. Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen (Rouen) in Poems (1998) I. 50 I maid that wif carll to werk all womenis werkis. 1816 W. Scott Antiquary I. xiv. 311 An ye will be a wife-carle, and buy fish at your ain hands. 1871 J. A. H. Murray in D. Lindsay Minor Poems 589 (margin) A niggardly curmudgeon, a wife-carl. wife-hunt n. a search for a wife for oneself. ΚΠ 1849 Graham's Mag. Feb. 115/2 Jasper..met with some strange adventure during his wife-hunt. 1908 E. Oldmeadow Aunt Maud 94 Richard Camber, home for six months on a wife-hunt..had decided to pay me court. 2001 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 13 Jan. (Late ed.) 14 His wife-hunts began with pamphlets about himself, which he circulated among hairdressers in Sydney and Melbourne. wife-hunt v. intransitive to search for a wife for oneself. ΚΠ 1864 Ld. Tennyson Aylmer's Field in Enoch Arden, etc. 62 Wife-hunting, as the rumour ran, was he. 1913 Continent 4 Sept. 1225/2 I don't want to wife hunt any farther. There ain't anybody like you for me, Cynthy. 2004 K. J. Fowler Jane Austen Bk. Club 257 Wentworth appears to wife-hunt among the Musgrove daughters, favoring Louisa. wife hunter n. a person in search of a wife. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > seeking marriage > [noun] > seeking a wife > one who wife hunter1752 wife-seeker1788 1752 B. Thornton Have at you All 26 Mar. 244 (heading) Adventures of a Wife-hunter. 1826 W. Cobbett Rural Rides in Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 14 Oct. 146 Young wife-hunters in search of rich and ugly and old women. 1957 Mansfield (Ohio) News-Jrnl. 8 Feb. 24 Petz described himself as a 29-year old single wife-hunter, never married. 2012 Washington Post (Nexis) 24 Nov. a1 They have apprehended dozens of Arab wife hunters and matchmakers who infiltrated the Jordanian camp posing as relief workers. wife-hunting n. the action of searching for a wife for oneself. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > seeking marriage > [noun] > seeking a wife wife-hunting1708 1708 W. Taverner Maid the Mistress iv. 43 If I ever come to this Place a Wife hunting again, may my Skin be stripp'd over my Ears. 1750 Adventures Mr. Loveill II. 2 Between wife-hunting and fortune-hunting. 1862 F. W. Robinson Owen II. vii. 126 So you're off to forrin' parts..fortune-hunting and wife-hunting, p'r'aps, and such like things. 1907 E. V. Lucas Swan & Friends 90 Having loved in vain a lady whom he met at Shaftesbury while on a wife-hunting expedition. 2010 D. Morrissey Plantation ii. 41 There's not much opportunity for wife hunting in the colonies. wife-old adj. now rare (of a girl or woman) old enough to be a wife, of marriageable age. ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > adult > [adjective] > adult woman womanly?1507 woman-grown1786 wife-old1898 society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > fitness for marriage > [adjective] > of marriageable age manable1608 wife-old1898 1898 Strand Mag. Apr. 365/1 A woman we call Laylá, in that she was wife-old; but the girl had seen no more than thirteen summers. 1901 E. Phillpotts Striking Hours 31 I was wife-auld, an' a peart gal very interested in men-folk. 1933 Indian State Railways Mag. Aug. 717/1 Malavika was wife-old. Already suitors had spoken for her hand. wife-ridden adj. oppressed by one's wife; henpecked. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married man > [adjective] > relating to a husband > henpecked wifish1607 woman-tireda1616 henpecked1660 wife-ridden1685 wife-bound1820 petticoat-governed1832 pussy-whipped1953 1685 M. Hildesley Religio Jurisprudentis viii. 75 Be not by any means Wife-ridden, to be wheedled out of your Wealth and Wits at once. 1716 C. Bullock Adventures of Half Hour 38 Mercy on me, was ever poor Man so Wife-ridden? 1828 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 830/1 He was, in fact, wife-ridden, his good lady wearing the breeches. 1957 New Castle (Pa.) News 17 June 6 They are wife-ridden and family-centered to a point where they no longer are willing to take risks in the old American fashion. 2011 B. H. Irvin Clothed in Robes of Sovereignty ii. 62 One loyalist writer caricaturized Southern congressmen as weak, wife-ridden husbands. wife sale n. now historical the sale of a wife; spec. an informal divorce ritual in which a married woman is offered by her husband for sale to male bidders at a public auction.Wife sales, often held with the woman's consent, sometimes occurred among the poorer classes of Britain in the 18th and early 19th centuries when divorce was not readily available or affordable. The phenomenon was brought to wider public attention by the depiction of such an auction in the opening chapter of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), though the term itself does not appear in Hardy's work. ΚΠ 1859 G. T. Robertson & J. R. Green Oxf. during Last Cent. 124/1 A curious instance of the low morality of the times may be seen in the frequency of the ‘Wife Sales’. In August, 1786, we find that ‘one Broom..sold his wife to a person of the name of Panton.’ 1863 Bradford Observer 19 Mar. 3/4 A wife sale took place in Merthyr Tydvil a few days ago... The price for which the man sold his wife was £3; £2 10s. 1946 E. Blunden Shelley 20 An occasional wife-sale produced lots of fun. 2014 M. Nicolaou Divorced, Beheaded, Sold vi. 149 In general, people seem to have grown more and more hostile towards wife sales from the late eighteenth century onwards. † wife-widow n. Obsolete rare a wife living apart from her husband. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > wife whose husband is absent widow1447 grass widow1822 wife-widow1875 golf-widow1898 1875 Ld. Tennyson Queen Mary iii. i. 120 If this Philip,..Left Mary a wife-widow here alone. C3. Compounds with wife's. † wife's light n. Obsolete rare a light in a church maintained by married women; cf. maidens' light n. at maiden n. and adj. Compounds 1b. ΚΠ 1547–8 in H. J. F. Swayne Churchwardens' Accts. Sarum (1896) 275 x li. of wex for the wyfes Light. Derivatives ˈwifekin n. colloquial a (or one's) wife (chiefly as an affectionate diminutive). ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > love > terms of endearment > [noun] > of or to a spouse, parent, or close companion > of or to wife cara sposa?1760 wifie1776 wifekin1831 wifelkin1851 wifelet1857 wifeling1861 society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > little wife (term of endearment) wifie1776 wifekin1831 wifelkin1851 wifelet1857 wifeling1861 1831 T. Carlyle Let. 4 Mar. in Coll. Lett. T. & J. W. Carlyle (1976) V. 243 Coming along, with my wifekin under my arm, to—London! 1898 J. Paton Castlebraes 184 Whenever conversation flags, Wifekin starts off again, exactly as if there never had been a break. 2002 T. J. Binyon tr. A. S. Pushkin in Pushkin (2004) xii. 384 Why, wifekin, do you want to compete with Countess Sollogub? ˈwifeling n. colloquial †(a) a little woman (in quot. 1861 as an affectionate diminutive, referring to a daughter, translating German Weibchen) (obsolete); (b) a (or one's) wife (chiefly as an affectionate diminutive). ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > love > terms of endearment > [noun] > of or to a spouse, parent, or close companion > of or to wife cara sposa?1760 wifie1776 wifekin1831 wifelkin1851 wifelet1857 wifeling1861 society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > little wife (term of endearment) wifie1776 wifekin1831 wifelkin1851 wifelet1857 wifeling1861 1861 Dwight's Jrnl. Music 2 Nov. 242/2 [Leopold] Mozart's reception by Duschek in Prague..is described by him in letters to his ‘Wifeling’ Nannerl. 1868 F. W. Farrar Seekers after God ii. iv. 226 If..some wifeling or childling be granted you. 1923 L. J. Miln Mr. & Mrs. Sên xlvii. 276 Won't you have her kindness, wifeling? 2014 Southern Reporter (Scotl.) (Nexis) 4 Apr. When his eldest's wifeling, the once barren Ila..becomes pregnant the air is tense with expectation. ˈwifeship n. the position or condition of a wife. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > condition or position of wifehooda1393 wifeheadc1500 wifeship1658 uxorialitya1832 wiving1840 wifedom1845 1658 S. Rutherford Surv. of Surv. Church-discipline ii. i. 181 If the wife destroy the husband to save her self, she destroys her own wifeship, while she labours the preservation of her self as a woman. 1891 T. K. Cheyne Origin & Relig. Contents Psalter vii. 315 The figures of sonship and wifeship were no longer adequate to express Israel's relation to its Lord. 2005 Western Hist. Q. 36 162 White patriarchy altered the legal status of the women..and entitled them to 320 acres by virtue of their ‘wifeship’. ˈwifeward adv. to or towards one's wife. ΚΠ 1866 Adams Sentinel (Gettysburg, Pa.) 14 Aug. The heavy head made another sag wifeward a full inch. 1885 R. Kipling Mare's Nest in Departmental Ditties & Other Verses Then Belial Machiavelli saw Her error (and I trust his own)... And travelled wifeward—not alone. 1988 D. Luke tr. J. W. von Goethe Diary xxiii, in tr. J. W. von Goethe Rom. Elegies & Diary (new ed.) 115 He's soon homeward and wifeward bound. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online December 2021). < n.eOE
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