wifedomn.
/ˈwʌɪfdəm/, U.S. /ˈwaɪfdəm/ 1. The state, condition, or fact of being a wife; the character or qualities 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
1845 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. Oct. 267/1 Wherever she may go..she still finds her wifedom and his supremacy recognized.
1887 Contemp. Rev. Jan. 114 This essential for good wifedom is also an essential for good womanhood.
1898 Daily Tel. 15 Aug. 7/6 Unfettered by the cares of wifedom and motherhood.
1976 Jrnl. Hist. Biol. 9 188 Aristotle's belief in the mental and biological superiority of free men to both women and natural slaves..gave sanction to a hierarchy of servitudes, including wifedom and slavery.
2009 Amer. Hist. Rev. 114 1310 The forms these unions took range from legitimate monogamous marriage to temporary wifedom and prostitution.
2. Wives collectively; married women as a class. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > married woman > [noun] > wife > wives collectively
wifedom1849
1849 Knickerbocker Sept. 268 Down upon the heads of all cockney ‘wifedom’ falls the remonstrance of some ‘complainant in the premises’.
1891 J. W. Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads VII. 489 The new race of Wifedom is sadly degenerating.
1941 Ames (Iowa) Daily Tribune 7 Nov. 5 American wifedom's most vexing enigma: what goes on at hubby's out-of-town conventions—after the business sessions.
1968 Stud. Eng. Lit. 1500–1900 8 544 The narrator..openly takes her and all suffering wifedom's side.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1845