housewife

Definition

A woman whose main employment is homemaking, maintaining the upkeep of her home and tending to household affairs; often, such a woman whose sole [unpaid] employment is homemaking.

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.

Example Sentences

• "2000, Uli Kusch, "Mr. Torture", Helloween, The Dark Ride Mr Torture sells pain / To the housewives in Spain / He knows just what they crave / Mr Torture"
• "It was a housewife, containing needles, a bodkin, and thread; ‘and, do you know,’ added he, ‘it was the most useful thing she could have given me, for it lasted all the time I was at Rome to mend my clothes with […].’"
• "Woffington's housewife, made by herself, homely to the eye, but holds everything in the world"