origin of the word alewife

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fluketamer

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i have often used alewives as bait in my other hobby - fishing.

recently on an episode of kath and kim that i was rewatching. kim was pondering what type of wife she wanted to be - her options were house, trophy and fish .

i thought what the heck is a fishwife?

turns out a fishwife was the female version of a fishmonger. one who sells fish

then i remembered another type of wife. the alewife. a baitfish as stated above. i thought why the hell do they call it an alewife. and is there an ale - wife? one who sells ale.

apparently there is and apparently the fish was named after the ale wives - female inn keepers who sold ale

from google:


  • Woman who brewed ale
    The word "alewife" was first used in England in 1393 to describe a woman who kept an alehouse or brewed and sold ale. It was synonymous with the word "brewster".

  • Fish
    The name "alewife" may have come from comparing the fish's rounded abdomen to a corpulent female tavernkeeper.



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why were all female tavern keepers fat?

i feel this was probably and over generalization ,

i think i am going to start referring to the missus as my alewife regardless of her girth.

good thing i have beer on tap waiting for me when i get home it has been a really long day.
 
"wife" just means "woman", it's just in English that the meaning has diverged to refer to "the woman of (somebody)" in many languages the word for wife and woman is the same: mujer, femme etc.
A fishwife is the woman who deals with the fish, cf alewife, midwife.

Middle English wif, wyf, from Old English wif (neuter) "woman, female, lady," also, but not especially, "wife," from Proto-Germanic *wīfa- (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian wif, Old Norse vif, Danish and Swedish viv, Middle Dutch, Dutch wijf, Old High German wib, German Weib), of uncertain origin and disputed etymology, not found in Gothic.
 
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