Medewifry

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The archaic term for the work of attending women during labour and delivery, once used for the skill of a midwife
2. An obsolete name for the craft of helping mothers give birth, performed by a woman who assists in the delivery
3. Old-fashioned word for the profession of a midwife, meaning the care and assistance given to women in childbirth

Etymology: "Medewifry" is an obsolete spelling of "midwifery," the work or craft of a midwife. It belongs to the Middle English period, when spelling was unstandardized and the same word could appear in many forms. The "medewife" spelling was common in that period, so the variant reflects how the word sounded and was written then, not a separate term. The word beneath it is "midwife," which is older than the English language's standardized spelling. Its first element is most often traced to Old English "mid," meaning "with," and its second to "wif," meaning "woman," giving a sense of "with-woman," a woman who stays with another during childbirth. Scholars have debated this analysis, and the exact older forms are not fully settled, so the "with-woman" reading is the most widely accepted explanation rather than a certainty. The "mead" that sometimes appears in folk explanations is a false link, since the word has nothing to do with the honey drink.