wifely
/ˈwaɪf.li/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.90 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of, befitting, pertaining to, or characteristic of a wife or wives.
Example Sentences
- "Being a domestic man, John decidedly missed the wifely attentions he had been accustomed to receive; but, as he adored his babies, he cheerfully relinquished his comfort for a time, supposing, with masculine ignorance, that peace would soon be restored."
- "'[…] Behold!' and she took his hand and placed it upon her shapely head, and then bent herself slowly down till one knee for an instant touched the ground—'Behold! in token of submission do I bow me to my lord! Behold!' and she kissed him on the lips, 'in token of my wifely love do I kiss my lord.[…]'"
- "From here, I am trusting you and your therapist, because the wifely hot air and gaslighting don’t square with “Outside of this issue, our relationship works.”"
Etymology
From Middle English wifly, wyfly, from Old English wīflīc (“womanly, wifely”), from Proto-Germanic *wībalīkaz (“wifely”). Cognate with Scots wifely (“womanly, wifely”), Dutch wijflijk, wijfelijk, German weiblich (“feminine, female”). By surface analysis, wife + -ly.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: wifly,wyfly, wīflīc, *wībalīkaz
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
wifely duties
non-wifely