wijf

Meaning

1. (neuter) woman, potentially being as pejorative as bitch
2. (derogatory,neuter,often) broad, bint

Concepts

shrew

vixen

Xanthippe

wife

broad

hag

woman

female

virago

Gender

Neuter

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ʋɛi̯f/

Etymology

From Middle Dutch wijf, from Old Dutch wīf, from Proto-West Germanic *wīb, from Proto-Germanic *wībą. While initially a neutral term for "woman", the word came to be associated first with lower-class women from the seventeenth century onwards, and over the following centuries developed into a largely derogatory term for woman who is disliked or at least somewhat disrespected by the speaker. Nonetheless, in some dialects the word remained neutral even into the twentieth century.