Goodwyf

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A respectable married woman or housewife in older English usage ; a woman who manages a household or is a mistress of the home
2. An archaic term for a wife or a woman of good standing ; in older writing, a lady who presides over a household
3. Formerly a term of address for a married woman of good character ; a dated word for a female head of a household

Etymology: Goodwyf is an Old English-era compound that survives mainly as a historical term, and its story is one of gradual narrowing. Its first element is "good" and its second is "wif," meaning woman or wife, so the literal sense is "good woman" or "good wife." In Middle English it was a respectful way to address or refer to a married woman or a mistress of a household, and it could be applied to women of different social ranks. Over time the word narrowed. By the later medieval period it had come to mean the female head of a household, and in some regions it was used for a woman who kept a tavern or ran an inn, a sense that reflected the household-management role. Its masculine counterpart, "goodman," followed a similar path toward meaning the male head of a household, and the two terms are often found together in older records. Its later life is largely confined to dialect and historical writing, where it survives as a marker of older social forms of address. Only the central sense of a respected woman running a household is important for understanding it.

Synonyms: goodwife, housewife, matron, homemaker