housewivery
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Senses: examples: text: The women teach their daughters from their youths vpwards, to bake bread, and to grind Millia, with other Houſewiuery; whereby it commeth to paſſe, that they haue good skill in houſe-keeping, becauſe they are brought vp therein from their youths.
ref: 1625, [Samuel] Purchas, “A description and historicall declaration of the golden Kingdome of Guinea, otherwise called the golden Coast of Myna, lying in a part of Africa, shewing their beliefe, opinions, traffiquing, bartering, and manner of speech; […]”, in Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], 2nd part, London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, 7th book, § III (Of their Apparell, Customes within doores, Manner of diet, Merchandising, the vse of Dache; Wares carried thither), page 934, lines 59–62:
text: So long as they can marry morally, ſuch as are free from groſſe crimes, uncleanneſſe, riot, alehouſe-haunting, and the like: ſuch as are of a ſweet carriage, faſhionable, and compleat, brought up well to a pleaſing and outwardly gracefull behaviour; eſpecially, if there be any meanes to live competently in the world, good husbandry and houſewivery; oh, they thinke their choice is excellent; yea, when children themſelves ſtagger for conſcience ſake, at ſuch offers, yet their parents are earneſt for the match, and vexe themſelves to ſee their children ſo preciſe. […] Fifthly to his family ſhee is an abſolute helper by neceſſity, and cannot be ſpared: not onely in point of houſewivery, but alſo in the diſpencing the Affayres of it within.
ref: 1642, D[aniel] R[ogers], Matrimoniall Honour: or, The Mutuall Crowne and Comfort of Godly, Loyall, and Chaste Marriage. […], London: […] Th: Harper for Philip Nevil, […], pages 33 and 298–299:
text: By her complexion, ſhe ſeems rather made of chalk or marle, than that red earth Adam was made of; though ſhe be ſo meager a ſoile, ſhe grows never the fatter by it; yet one knows not what a good Husbandman may do, for they ſay, a good Husband would remedy all; but he muſt take her on credit then, both for Beauty and good houſewivery; few elſe would venture on her complexion, and ſuch a quality, as if ſhe hold on as ſhe begins, ſhe ſoon would eat her husband out of houſe and home: […]
ref: 1658, Rich[ard] Fleckno, Enigmaticall Characters, All Taken to the Life, from Severall Persons, Humours, & Dispositions, page 17:
text: 8. Bare walls make giddy houſe-wives. 8. i. e, Idle houſe-wives, they having nothing whereabout to buſie themſelves and ſhew their good houſewivery. […] One utterly ignorant of countrey affairs, of husbandry and houſewivery as there practiſed.
ref: 1670, J[ohn] R[ay], A Collection of English Proverbs Digested into a Convenient Method for the Speedy Finding Any One upon Occasion; with Short Annotations. […], Cambridge, Cambs: […] John Hayes, […], for W[illiam] Morden, pages 59 and 240:
text: This tale, no doubt, is written in consequence of the rubbish that has appeared in the Times, in the shape of letters on the question, “Can a man marry with £300. a-year?” There are many practical replies to this interrogatory, in this country; thousands upon thousands of families are living in elegant ease and unequivocal respectability upon £300. a-year, and less; educating and supporting their children in a creditable manner, under the management of notable housewivery.
ref: 1858 May 8, “Reviews”, in The Cambridge Independent Press, Huntingdon, Wisbech, Ely, Bedford, Peterborough, & Lynn Gazette, volume LIII, number 2,248, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, page 6, column 1:
text: Pro-Family believes that the measure is at odds with the role of women as family makers and is, therefore, in harmony with a “radical feminism” that wishes “to change that.” Pro-Family indicts radical feminists, whatever that means, as the villains of the piece and quote a feminist author as describing housewivery as “an illegitimate profession.”
ref: 1985 September 19, John J[oseph] Marchi, “Senator defends name change bill”, in Staten Island Advance, volume 100, number 21,732, Staten Island, N.Y.: Advance Publications Inc., page B 10, column 3:
text: Neither seemed to understand what they perceived as the American obsession with money, the feverish emphasis on career, and the devil-may-care attitude toward family. Yet both readily will readily^([sic]) admit that America offered, and still offers, the opportunity to escape from the^([sic]) what they called the subtle imprisonment of housewivery, the Irish tradition that ties a woman to her husband’s circumstance.
ref: 1987 March 15, Lou Perfidio, “County Montgomery: Irish find a place in pastoral suburbs far from Emerald Isle”, in The Philadelphia Inquirer, volume 316, number 74, Philadelphia, Pa.: Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., page 3-H, column 1:
text: Hawn’s feisty side — whether she’s rebelling against cheap caviar or overwhelming housewivery — gives “Overboard” its energy and direction.
ref: 1987 December 19, Betsy Pickle, “‘Overboard’ drifts off-course, weakens”, in The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Knoxville, Tenn., page A16, columns 4–5:
text: Focus of the play’s attention is Maura Vaughn’s character of Mrs. Los Angeles, a former WAC who has so far convinced herself she’s happy to have regressed to housewivery. She is attempting to fit the contest’s vision of the typical American homemaker while remaining her own woman.
ref: 1988 July 15, Bill Hayden, “Stage review: Comedy romps through the ’50s”, in The Morning News, 109th year, number 89, Wilmington, Del.: The News-Journal Co., page D3, column 2:
text: We even learned this weekend that housewivery has become so unusual that two Vassar University women were forming a group called "Future Housewives of America." You know the number of housewives are dwindling ever smaller when a two-woman college club makes national news.
ref: 1989 June 27, Bob Sims, “Equality's price seen at grocery”, in The Prattville Progress, volume 104, number 75, Prattville, Ala., page 2, column 2:
text: Though bathed in a culture of money literally head to toe ([…]), Mary Cullerton could not have been less suited to the country-club blandness of upper-class, suburban housewivery in the 1960s and ’70s. She was too much of a square peg, too loud, too extravagant in her phobias, opinions, rages and oomph and clearly too three-dimensional for the rest of the world.
ref: 2003 May 18, Margaria Fichtner, “Daughter of a square peg in a small Connecticut town”, in The Herald, Miami, Fla., page 2L, column 1:
ref: 2014 April 24, Maria Jiunta Heck, “Life deconstructed: Housewivery is the ultimate indelicate dance”, in The Times Leader, numbers 2014-114, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., →ISSN, page 1C, column 5
text: As prior to her career in housewivery, Margaret continues to host the weekly program “The Nest with Magpie” on WSPJ-LP FM Syracuse; […]
ref: 2020 April 19, “Weddings: Campbell/Karpenko”, in The Post-Standard, Syracuse, N.Y., page I2, column 1:
glosses: Alternative form of housewifery.