Dictionary

side-wife en · NOUN

Etymology

From side + wife. Compare Dutch bijwijf (“concubine”).

Meanings

1. A woman who (among others) has the potential to become one's wife, or who is fulfilling the role of one's wife in addition to one's actual wife; a concubine
   • If, however, his wife gave him a handmaiden and he had children by her, he was then barred from taking a side-wife (as a concubine was called). 1903, Sydney Russell Wrightington, Horace Williams Fuller, Arthur Weightman Spencer, The Green Bag - Volume 15:
   • For one who has no husband, as well as for one who acts as a side-wife for a person, who has formed a household, or who lives elsewhere and is not enumerated together [with a husband or children on a population register], […] 2015, Law, State, and Society in Early Imperial China (2 vols)
   • She was also a 'sidewife'. Nobody talks about it because she is a rich entrepreneur. 1998, Yūko Nishimura, Gender, Kinship And Property Rights:
   • A gilly (or sheevin) is a side-wife taken by a man who already has a legal wife. 2012, Robin Furth, Stephen King's The Dark Tower Concordance:

Forms