plural of wife; married women
from Old English wīf meaning 'woman'
Wives were originally just 'women' - the word wife comes from the general term!
Plural of 'wife'—a relational identity historically centered on women's legal/social subordination to husbands; no parallel male term marked marital status as primary identity.
Use when appropriate to context; acknowledge that 'wife' was historically a constraining category, not just a description.
Women reformers rejected wife-as-identity, establishing legal personhood independent of marital status—a foundational feminist achievement.
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