wif
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Alteration of with.
Pronunciation
Preposition
wif
- (informal, dialectal, nonstandard) with
- 1998, Ted Shine, Contributions, →ISBN, page 31:
- That's what I mo' wear wif my shoes.
- 2000, Jan King, It'a A Girl Thing: The Hilarious Truth About Women, →ISBN, page 161:
- I been at the gym gettin' down wif my peeps.
- 2002, Stan Hayes, The Rough English Equivalent, →ISBN, page 324:
- If I don' have no problem wif my high school test?
Anagrams
Mapudungun
Adjective
wif (Raguileo spelling)
Adverb
wif (Raguileo spelling)
Noun
wif (Raguileo spelling)
References
- Wixaleyiñ: Mapucezugun-wigkazugun pici hemvlcijka (Wixaleyiñ: Small Mapudungun-Spanish dictionary), Beretta, Marta; Cañumil, Dario; Cañumil, Tulio, 2008.
Middle English
Noun
wif
- Alternative form of wyf
Old Dutch
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *wīb, from Proto-Germanic *wībą.
Cognate with Old Frisian wīf, Old Saxon wīf, Old English wīf, Old High German wīb, Old Norse víf.
Pronunciation
Noun
wīf n
- woman
- c. 1000 CE, Leiden Willeram;
- Thie thiernan sahon sie ande zaldon sie ze aller wivo saligosta
- The girls saw her and counted her as the most fortunate of all women
- c. 1100 CE, Rhinelandic Rhyming Bible;
- Thure sinen bosen nith betroch er thaz arme wif
- Because of his evil hate, he decieved that poor woman
- c. 1000 CE, Leiden Willeram;
- (rare) wife
Declension
Derived terms
- wīffardragan (“the kidnapping of a woman”)
Descendants
- Middle Dutch: wijf
References
“wīf”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012
Old English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *wīb, from Proto-Germanic *wībą, of uncertain origin.
Cognate with Old Frisian wīf, Old Saxon wīf, Old Dutch wīf, Old High German wīb, Old Norse víf.
Pronunciation
Noun
wīf n
- woman
- c. 992, Ælfric, "The Annunciation of St. Mary"
- Ūs becōm dēaþ and forwyrd þurh wīf, and ūs becōm eft līf and hredding þurh wīfmann.
- Death and disaster came to us through a woman [Eve], and then life and salvation came to us through a woman [Mary].
- c. 990, Wessex Gospels, John 4:27
- His leornungcneohtas wundrodon þæt hē wiþ wīf spræc, þēah heora nān ne cwæþ “Hwæt sēcst þū?” oþþe “Hwæt spricst þū wiþ hīe?”
- His disciples were amazed that he was talking to a woman, though none of them said “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking to her?”
- c. 992, Ælfric, "The Annunciation of St. Mary"
- female
- c. 995, Ælfric, Extracts on Grammar in English
- Ǣġðer is mann ġe wer ġe wīf.
- A person is either a male or a female.
- c. 995, Ælfric, Extracts on Grammar in English
- wife
- late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy
- Swīðe wynsum hit biþ þæt man wīf hæbbe and bearn.
- It's very pleasant to have a wife and children.
- late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy
Usage notes
- Since wīf is a grammatically neuter noun, all accompanying articles, determiners, and adjectives take neuter forms: þæt ealde wīf ("the old woman").
- However, pronouns referring back to wīf are almost always feminine: Ġesiehst þū þæt wīf sēo þǣr stent? Canst þū hīe? ("Do you see the woman who [feminine] is standing there? Do you know her?"). The same applies to the neuter word mæġden (“girl”) and the masculine word wīfmann (“woman”), whose grammatical genders also disagree with their natural genders.
Declension
Antonyms
- wer (with respect to gender)
Derived terms
- wīfcynn (“womankind”)
- wīffrēond (“female friend”)
- wīfhād (“the female gender”)
- wīfhand (“a female inheritor; female side”)
- wīflēas (“wifeless”)
- wīflīċ (“female, feminine”)
- wīfmann (“woman”)
- wīfsċrūd (“women's clothing”)
Descendants
Old Frisian
Alternative forms
- wiif (Late Old Frisian)
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *wīb, from Proto-Germanic *wībą, of uncertain origin. Cognates include Old English wīf, Old Saxon wīf and Old Dutch wīf.
Pronunciation
Noun
wīf n
Descendants
References
- Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN
West Frisian
Pronunciation
Adjective
wif
Inflection
Inflection of wif | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
uninflected | wif | |||
inflected | wiffe | |||
comparative | wiffer | |||
positive | comparative | superlative | ||
predicative/adverbial | wif | wiffer | it wifst it wifste | |
indefinite | c. sing. | wiffe | wiffere | wifste |
n. sing. | wif | wiffer | wifste | |
plural | wiffe | wiffere | wifste | |
definite | wiffe | wiffere | wifste | |
partitive | wifs | wiffers | — |
Further reading
- “wif”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪf
- Rhymes:English/ɪf/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English prepositions
- English informal terms
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- odt:Family
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