elfwife

English

Etymology

From elf +‎ wife.

Noun

elfwife (plural elfwives)

  1. A married female elf.
    • 1824, John Macculloch, The Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, volume IV, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, page 326:
      The Spanish Hidalgo loses his Elf-wife by pronouncing a sacred name, and the Metal Boat of the Prince Amrad sinks under the same bann.
    • 1924 June 7, Illustrated News Budget, Brisbane, page 25, column 4:
      Elidyr, the elf-wife,
      Keeps a small tavern
      In a moss-carpeted,
      Fern-curtained cavern.
    • 1931 November 11, The Northern Star, Lismore, page 12, column 3:
      An elf wife hung her washing out
      Upon a cobweb line
      (Including socks and handkerchiefs),
      The articles were nine.
  2. The human wife of a male elf.
    • 1851, Benjamin Thorpe, Northern Mythology, volume II, London: Edward Lumley, page 128:
      Here the woman learned that the Elf-wife could not be delivered without the aid of a Christian woman, she being herself a Christian, but had been carried off by the Elf-man.
    • 1891, Edwin Sidney Hartland, The Science of Fairy Tales, London: Walter SCott, page 40:
      During his absence the elfwife took the opportunity of instructing her helper as to her conduct when he returned; and the first and chief point of her advice was to eat nothing that was offered her.
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