A wife is a female

Female

Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...

 partner in a marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

. The rights and obligations of the wife regarding her spouse

Spouse

The term spouse generally refers to a partner in a marriage:* Husband, referring to a male partner* Wife, referring to a female partner* In some usages, a partner in a civil union, domestic partnership or common-law marriage- See also :* Bride...

(s) and others, and her status in the community and in law, varies between cultures and has varied over time.
The word is of Germanic origin, from Proto-Germanic *wībam, "woman". In Middle English

Middle English

Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....

 it had the form wif, and in Old English wīf, "woman

Woman

A woman , pl: women is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent...

 or wife". It is related to Modern German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 Weib (woman, female), and may derive ultimately from the Indo-European root ghwībh- "shame; pudenda" (cf.