wifehood

English

Alternative forms

• wivehood

Etymology

From Middle English wifhode, wifhod, wifhede, from Old English wīfhād (“femininity; the female sex”), equivalent to wife +‎ -hood.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwʌɪfhʊd/

Noun

wifehood (usually uncountable, plural wifehoods)

1. The quality or state of being a wife.
   • 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 199:

     During the week they spent at Windsor all their necessary furniture was sent in; the more ornamental articles it was decided to leave to the choice of the fair mistress, and, as she had no visits to pay or receive, the occupation it gave Louisa saved her from any mortification she might have felt on sinking at once into the state of happy wifehood.

2. The character or behaviour that befits a good wife; wifeliness.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     That girdle gave the vertue of chast love, / And wivehood true, to all that did it beare […].

Related terms

• motherhood