Etymology

wifely

W4I1F4E1L1Y4

Today it means: Of, befitting, pertaining to, or characteristic of a wife or wives. Full definition →

Middle English wifly, wyfly ← Old English wīflīc ← Proto-Germanic *wībalīkaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*wībalīkaz“wifely”
  2. Old English · inherited fromwīflīc“womanly, wifely”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromwifly, wyfly
  4. English todaywifely

From Middle English wifly, wyfly, from Old English wīflīc (“womanly, wifely”), from Proto-Germanic *wībalīkaz (“wifely”). Cognate with Scots wifely (“womanly, wifely”), Dutch wijflijk, wijfelijk, German weiblich (“feminine, female”). By surface analysis, wife + -ly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.