*wībą

Runic: ᚹᛁᛒᚨ Pronunciation: /ˈwiː.βɑ̃/

noun · neuter · a-stem

Meanings

woman
wife

Etymology

Unknown, with a number of disputed suggestions. One suggestion connects Tocharian A/B kip/kwīpe (‘genitals, female pudenda’) (perhaps also Albanian cipë (‘sense of shame, membrane’)), for a hypothetical Proto-Indo-European *gʰwíbʰ- (‘pudenda’).

Another suggestion connects Old English wǣfan (‘wrap, clothe’), Old Norse vífa (‘wrap, veil’) for a suggested original motive of "married woman wearing a scarf", though with no certain further cognates outside of Germanic.

Yet another suggestion connects Old High German weibon (‘move to and fro’), Old Norse veifa (‘swing, throw’), for a motive of "one who is moving busily; housekeeper, maidservant" (cf. German Weibel (‘manservant, usher’)).

Declension

Case	Singular	Plural
Nom.	wībą	wībō
Acc.	wībą	wībō
Gen.	wības, wībis	wībǫ̂
Dat.	wībai	wībamaz
Inst.	wībō	wībamiz
Voc.	wībą	wībō

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Descendants

*wīb (Proto-West Germanic)
- wīf (Old Dutch)
  - wijf (Middle Dutch)
    - wijf (Dutch)
      - wyf (Afrikaans)
      - wefi (Sranan Tongo)
*wīb (Proto-West Germanic)
- wīf (Old English)
  - wif, wyf (Middle English)
    - wife (Scots)
*wīb (Proto-West Germanic)
- wīf (Old English)
  - wif, wyf (Middle English)
    - wife (English)
      - wefi (Sranan Tongo)
*wīb (Proto-West Germanic)
- wīf (Old English)
  - wif, wyf (Middle English)
    - wife (English)
      - ワイフ (waifu) (Japanese)
        
        waifu (English)
*wīb (Proto-West Germanic)
- wīf (Old Frisian)
  - wüf (North Frisian)
  - Wieuw (Saterland Frisian)
  - wiif, wyf (West Frisian)
*wīb (Proto-West Germanic)
- wīb (Old High German)
  - wīp, wīf (Middle High German)
    - ? (Alemannic German)
    - ? (Bavarian)
    - Wiev, Wivv, Weiv (Central Franconian)
    - Weib (German)
    - bow (Vilamovian)
    - ווײַב (vayb) (Yiddish)
*wīb (Proto-West Germanic)
- wīf (Old Saxon)
  - wîf (Middle Low German)
    - Wiev (German Low German)
    - Wief (Low German)
víf (Old Norse)
- viv (Danish)
- vív (Faroese)
- víf (Icelandic)
- viv (Norwegian Bokmål)
- viv (Norwegian Nynorsk)
víf (Old Norse)
- vīf (Old Swedish)
  - viv, vif (Swedish)

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