housewife

B2 Topic:People & Society

US /ˈhaʊs.waɪf/ See IPA manual

Freq #10409

Meanings

1

noun
A woman who stays at home to manage the house and care for her family rather than working for pay.

She was a full-time housewife while her children were young.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a woman who stays at home... homemakerlady of the housewoman of the house

Word family

Forms housewifelyhousewives

Derived forms boywifehousewifedomhousewifehoodhousewifeishhousewifelikehousewifelyhousewiferyhousewifeshiphousewifeyhousewifishhousewifizationnonhousewife

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.

houswyf Middle English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# housewife

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈhaʊs.waɪf/
**Frequency rank:** 10409

## Meanings
1. A woman who stays at home to manage the house and care for her family rather than working for pay.

## Examples
- She was a full-time housewife while her children were young.

## Derived Forms
- boywife
- housewifedom
- housewifehood
- housewifeish
- housewifelike
- housewifely
- housewifery
- housewifeship
- housewifey
- housewifish
- housewifization
- nonhousewife

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: houswyf

## 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.

## AI Etymology
Housewife comes 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. The analysis is mainly morphological: the modern nominal form is built from the named elements. In current use, the main sense is “A woman who stays at home to manage the house and care for her family rather than working for pay”.

## Topics
- People & Society

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