housewife

See also: house-wife

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English houswyf, housewif, huswijf, equivalent to house +‎ wife; a doublet of hussy, which it was long distinguished from and displaced due to gradual negative connotation (see Online Etymology Dictionary entry). Cognate with West Frisian húswiif, Dutch huiswijf, German Low German Huuswief, German Hausweib.

Pronunciation

Person
  • IPA(key): /ˈhaʊs.waɪf/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • (obsolete, dialectal, poetic) IPA(key): /ˈhʌzwaɪf/, /ˈhʌz(w)ɪf/
Bag

Noun

housewife (plural housewives or housewifes) (see notes below about plurals)

  1. (plural "housewives") A woman whose main employment is homemaking, maintaining the upkeep of her home and tending to household affairs; often, such a woman whose sole [unpaid] employment is homemaking.
    Synonym: (archaic) henhussy
    Hypernym: homemaker
    Coordinate term: househusband
    • 2000, Uli Kusch, "Mr. Torture", Helloween, The Dark Ride
      Mr Torture sells pain / To the housewives in Spain / He knows just what they crave / Mr Torture
  2. (plural "housewives") The wife of a householder; the mistress of a family; the female head of a household.
  3. (plural "housewifes") A little case or bag for materials used in sewing, and for other articles of female work.
    Synonym: hussy
    • 1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson, published 1986, page 246:
      It was a housewife, containing needles, a bodkin, and thread; ‘and, do you know,’ added he, ‘it was the most useful thing she could have given me, for it lasted all the time I was at Rome to mend my clothes with […] .’
    • 1852, Tom Taylor, Charles Reade, Masks and Faces, act II:
      Woffington's housewife, made by herself, homely to the eye, but holds everything in the world
    • 1997, David L. Phillips, A Soldier's Story, MetroBooks, →ISBN, page 61:
      The "soldier's housewife" was a small sewing kit that was carried to make timely repairs to clothing and equipment.
  4. (plural "housewives", obsolete) A worthless woman; a hussy.

Derived terms

Translations

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Translations to be checked

Verb

housewife (third-person singular simple present housewifes, present participle housewifing, simple past and past participle housewifed)

  1. Alternative form of housewive.
    • 1983 December 10, Jolanta Benal, “The Second Revolution”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 21, page 14:
      Career opportunity […] is the one who never knocks — especially not on the doors of women, who are still hooking, housewifing and hairdressing for their livings.
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