goodwives
Married women, archaic
Goodwives is the plural of goodwife, an archaic term for a married woman of modest social standing—roughly equivalent to Mrs. but implying a respectable householder rather than nobility.
The term appears most familiarly in colonial American contexts: The goodwives of Salem testified against the accused witches.
It survives mainly in historical fiction and period writing.
English Protestant simplifier
- MassachusettsNortheastern colonial state
- SalemCity or name
- matronFemale institutional supervisor
- colonialOf occupied territories
New England · settlement · Pilgrim · domestic · mistress · homestead · dame · respectability
Married partner
- wifeFemale marriage partner
- matronFemale institutional supervisor
- dameDated slang for woman
- mistressIllicit female lover
householder · helpmeet · consort · married woman · homemaker · address · title · honorific
19th-century American novelist
- Little WomenNovel about four sisters
- MarchYear's third month
- novelNew and unusual
- moral talesStories conveying ethical lessons
nineteenth-century · Victorian · maternal · didactic · sentimental · womanhood · sisterhood · femininity
Puritan
English Protestant simplifier
- MassachusettsNortheastern colonial state
- SalemCity or name
- matronFemale institutional supervisor
colonial · New England · settlement · Pilgrim · domestic · mistress · homestead · dame · respectability · virtue
spouse
Married partner
mistress · householder · helpmeet · consort · married woman · homemaker · address · title · honorific · yeoman
Alcott
19th-century American novelist
- Little WomenNovel about four sisters
- MarchYear's third month
- novelNew and unusual
moral tales · nineteenth-century · Victorian · maternal · didactic · sentimental · womanhood · sisterhood · femininity · propriety
goodwivesharlots
Women selling sexual services
whores · prostitutes · fallen women · strumpets · jezebels
goodwivesladies
Women, respectfully addressed
noblewomen · gentlewomen · dames · mistresses · peasant women