wif

• wid, wiv (both informal)

Alteration of with.

• enPR: wĭf, IPA^(key): /wɪf/
• Rhymes: -ɪf

wif

1. (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?

• IWF

wif (Raguileo spelling)

1. long
2. straight

wif (Raguileo spelling)

1. directly

wif (Raguileo spelling)

1. irrigation ditch

• Wixaleyiñ: Mapucezugun-wigkazugun pici hemvlcijka (Wixaleyiñ: Small Mapudungun-Spanish dictionary), Beretta, Marta; Cañumil, Dario; Cañumil, Tulio, 2008.

wif

1. Alternative form of wyf

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.

• IPA^(key): /wiːf/

wīf n

1. 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

2. (rare) wife

• wīffardragan (“the kidnapping of a woman”)

• Middle Dutch: wijf
  • Dutch: wijf
    • Afrikaans: wyf
    • Jersey Dutch: wāif
    • Negerhollands: wief, wif
    • Skepi Creole Dutch: weef
    • Sranan Tongo: wefi
  • Limburgish: wief
  • West Flemish: wuuf
  • Zealandic: wuuf

“wīf”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

• wīb

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.

• IPA^(key): /wiːf/

wīf n

1. 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?”

2. 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.

3. 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.

• 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.

• wer (with respect to gender)

• 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”)

• Middle English: wyf, wife, wif, wiff, wiffe, wijf, wive, wyfe, wyff, wyve
  • English: wife (see there for further descendants)
  • Scots: wife

• wiif (Late Old Frisian)

From Proto-West Germanic *wīb, from Proto-Germanic *wībą, of uncertain origin. Cognates include Old English wīf, Old Saxon wīf and Old Dutch wīf.

• IPA^(key): /wiːf/

wīf n

1. woman
2. wife

• North Frisian: wüf
• Saterland Frisian: Wieuw
• West Frisian: wiif

• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN

• IPA^(key): /vɪf/

wif

1. shaky
2. impermanent
3. fickle, indecisive

• “wif”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011