From Middle English wyf, wif, from Old English wīf, from Proto-West Germanic *wīb, from Proto-Germanic *wībą.

Germanic cognates include Scots wife, Western Frisian wiif, Saterland Frisian Wieuw, Northern Frisian wüf, Dutch wijf, Low German Wief, German Weib, Danish viv, Norwegian viv, Swedish viv, Faroese vív, Icelandic víf.

The further etymology is unknown, with a number of disputed suggestions. One suggestion connects Tocharian A/B kip/kwīpe ("genitals, female pudenda"), for a hypothetical Indo-European *gʰwíbʰ-.

Another suggestion connects Old English wǣfan ("wrap, clothe"), Old Norse vífa ("wrap, veil") for a suggested original motive of "married woman wearing a scarf".

Yet another suggestion connects Old High German weibon ("move to and fro"), Old Norse veifa ("swing, throw"), for a motive of "one who is moving busily; housekeeper, maidservant" (cf. German Weibel ("manservant, usher")).

• IPA: /waɪf/

wife (plural wives)

1. A married woman, especially in relation to her spouse.

   The Fisherman and His Wife

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:

     It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.

   • 1952, P. G. Wodehouse, Big Business, in 'A Few Quick Ones', Everyman, London: 2009, p 127-8.

     All through Reginald's deeply moving performance she had sat breathless, her mind in a whirl and her soul stirred to her very depths. With each low note that he pulled up from the soles of his shoes she could feel the old affection and esteem surging back into her with a whoosh, and long before he had taken his sixth bow she knew ... that it would be madness to try to seek happiness elsewhere, particularly as the wife of a man with large ears and no chin, who looked as if he were about to start in the two-thirty race at Kempton Park.

2. The female of a pair of mated animals.

   A new wife for the gander is introduced into the pen.

3. (Scotland) Synonym of woman.

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

• (antonym(s) of “married woman”): husband, were#Etymology 2 (obsolete)

• French: femme, épouse
• German: Ehefrau, Frau, Eheweib, Weib, Gemahlin, Gattin
• Italian: sposa, moglie
• Portuguese: esposa, mulher
• Russian: жена́
• Spanish: esposa, mujer

wife (wifes, present participle wifing; simple past and past participle wifed)

1. (slang, AAVE) To marry (a woman).

• wive

• German: heiraten, zur Frau nehmen
• Portuguese: esposar, casar
• Russian: жени́ться