fishwife

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈfɪʃwaɪf/ UK /ˈfɪʃwaɪf/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a woman who sells fish; a coarse, loud-mouthed woman

She scolded the porters like a fishwife at the dock.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a woman who sells fish; a... shrew virago harridan scoldtermagant

Word family

Related forms fish wife

Etymology

A compound of fish + wife (in the older sense of 'woman'), from Old English fisc + wīf; originally a woman selling fish, with the pejorative 'coarse, loud woman' sense from such vendors' reputed manner.

fisc Old English wīf Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# fishwife

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈfɪʃwaɪf/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈfɪʃwaɪf/

## Meanings
1. a woman who sells fish; a coarse, loud-mouthed woman

## Examples
- She scolded the porters like a fishwife at the dock.

## Synonyms
- shrew
- virago
- harridan
- scold
- termagant

## Related Forms
- fish
- wife

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: fisc
- Root: wīf

## Etymology
A compound of fish + wife (in the older sense of 'woman'), from Old English fisc + wīf; originally a woman selling fish, with the pejorative 'coarse, loud woman' sense from such vendors' reputed manner.

## AI Etymology
Fishwife is a compound of fish + wife (in the older sense of 'woman'), from Old English fisc + wīf; originally a woman selling fish, with the pejorative 'coarse, loud woman' sense from such vendors' reputed manner. The etymological trail includes Old English fisc and Old English wīf. As a noun, fishwife names a woman who sells fish; a coarse, loud-mouthed woman. The same family is visible in related forms such as fish and wife. The analysis is partly morphological, with the modern form built from the elements named in the history.

## Topics
- People & Society

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