FromMiddle Englishgoodwyf,godwyf,godwif, equivalent togood +wife.
goodwife (pluralgoodwives)
- (obsolete) A female head of a household.
1885–1888,Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor,Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume(please specify the volume),[London]: […] Burton Club […],→OCLC:"O my lord the Sultan," said the other [the Wazir], "verily women be weakly of wits, and haply thisgoodwife cometh hither to complain before thee against her goodman or some of her people."
- (obsolete)A title of respect for a woman.
Goodwife Hopkins
