fishwife

fish·wife

F f

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- UK Pronunciation
- UK IPA
- [fish-wahyf]
- /ˈfɪʃˌwaɪf/
- /ˈfɪ.ʃwaɪf/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [fish-wahyf]
- /ˈfɪʃˌwaɪf/

Definitions of fishwife word

noun plural fishwife a woman who sells fish. 1
noun plural fishwife a coarse-mannered, vulgar-tongued woman. 1
noun fishwife A coarse-mannered woman who is prone to shouting. 1
noun fishwife female fishmonger 1
noun fishwife loud coarse woman 1
countable noun fishwife If you say that someone is behaving like a fishwife, you mean that they are shouting a great deal and behaving in a very unpleasant and bad-tempered way. 0

See all 9 definitions of fishwife

Information block about the term

Origin of fishwife

First appearance:

before 1375

One of the 22% oldest English words

First recorded in 1375-1425, fishwife is from the late Middle English word fisshwyf. See fish, wife

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Fishwife

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Fishwife

fishwife popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 61% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

Most Europeans know this English word. The frequency of it’s usage is somewhere between "mom" and "screwdriver".

fishwife usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for fishwife

noun fishwife

shrew — any of several small, mouselike insectivores of the genus Sorex and related genera, having a long, sharp snout.
biddy — If someone describes an old woman as an old biddy, they are saying in an unkind way that they think she is silly or unpleasant.
beldam — an old woman, esp an ugly or malicious one; hag
virago — a loud-voiced, ill-tempered, scolding woman; shrew.
jezebel — Also, Douay Bible, Jezabel. the wife of Ahab, king of Israel. I Kings 16:31.

All 49 Synonyms of fishwife