housewife

English

Etymology

house +‎ wife

Pronunciation

Person

• (UK, US) IPA: /ˈhaʊs.waɪf/, X-SAMPA: /"haUs.waIf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Bag

• IPA: /ˈhʌzɪf/, X-SAMPA: /"hVz.If/

Noun

housewife (plural housewives)

1. The wife of a householder; the mistress of a family; the female head of a household.
2. A little case or bag for materials used in sewing, and for other articles of female work; – called also hussy.
   • 1852: Tom Taylor and Charles Reade, Masks and Faces Act II

     Woffington's housewife, made by herself, homely to the eye, but holds everything in the world

Related terms

• househusband

Hypernyms

• homemaker

Derived terms

• housewifely
• housewifery
• housewifization

Translations

female head of household

• Arabic: ربة منزل (ar) (rábbat mánzil) f, ربة بيت (ar) (rábbat bayt) f, ربة أسرة (ar) (rábbat 'úsra) f
• Basque: etxekoandre (eu)
• Burmese: အိမ်ရှင်မ (my)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 主婦 (cmn), 主妇 (cmn) (zhǔfù)

• Dutch: huisvrouw (nl) f
• Finnish: emäntä, kotirouva, perheenemäntä
• French: maîtresse de maison (fr) f, femme au foyer (fr) f
• German: Hausfrau (de) f
• Greek: νοικοκυρά (el) (noikokyrá) f
• Hebrew: עקרת בית (he) (akéret báyit) f
• Hungarian: háziasszony (hu)
• Icelandic: húsfrú (is) f, húsmóðir (is) f

• Japanese: 主婦 (ja) (しゅふ, shufu)
• Jèrriais: femme dé mênage f
• Khmer: ស្ដ្រីមេផ្ទះ (km) (strəy mee pteah)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: کابان (ku) (kaban)

• Lao: ແມ່ເຮືອນ (lo)
• Polish: gospodyni domowa (pl) f
• Portuguese: dona-de-casa (pt) f, dona de casa (pt) f
• Romanian: gospodină f, casnică f
• Russian: домохозяйка (ru) (domoxozjájka) f
• Serbo-Croatian: domaćica (sh) f
• Spanish: ama de casa (es) f
• Volapük: domaläd (vo)

case for materials used in sewing

• Finnish: käsityölaukku
• French: trousse de couture f, boîte à ouvrage (fr) f
• Hungarian: varrókészlet (hu)

• Icelandic: húsmóðir
• Portuguese: caixa de costura (pt) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Serbo-Croatian: kućanica f

• Telugu: గృహిణి (te) (gr̥hiṇi)

Verb

housewife (third-person singular simple present housewifes, present participle housewifing, simple past and past participle housewifed)

1. Alternative form of housewive.