Wife Definition
- to marry (a specified woman)
Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Wife
Origin of Wife
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From Middle English wif, wiif, wyf, from Old English wÄ«f (“woman, female, lady, wife"), from Proto-Germanic *wÄ«bÄ… (“woman, wife"), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰʷí₂bÊ°- (“shame, pudenda") (compare Tocharian A/B kip/kwÄ«pe (“shame, genitals, female pudenda")). Cognate with Scots wife (“wife"), West Frisian wiif (“wife, woman"), North Frisian wüf (“wife, woman"), Dutch wijf (“woman, female"), Low German Wief (“woman, female"), German Weib (“woman, wife, female"), Danish viv (“woman"), Swedish viv (“woman"), Faroese vív (“wife, woman"), Icelandic víf (“woman").
From Wiktionary
Middle English wif woman, wife from Old English wīf
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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