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You are here: Home / Language / Where Did the Word “Fishwife” For a Vulgar Woman Originate and What Did “Housewife” Mean Originally?

Where Did the Word “Fishwife” For a Vulgar Woman Originate and What Did “Housewife” Mean Originally?

May 15, 2020 by Karen Hill

From its Anglo-Saxon root word “wif”, wife simply means “woman.”

A woman’s profession, such as a policewoman or chairwoman, often acknowledges her gender in her job title.

Housewife and midwife are among the few titles like this to have survived from medieval times, but at one time, an alewife owned a pub, an oysterwife sold oysters, and a fishwife sold fish.

She picked up her vulgarity from the men on the waterfront.

That’s why is a vulgar woman is called a “fishwife” while a respectable married woman is a “housewife”.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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