Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A female fortune-teller.
Wiktionary
- n. A female fortuneteller.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Scot. A female fortune teller.
Etymologies
- spae + wife? (Wiktionary)
Examples
“That was one thing settled and sealed, so no more need be said about it; yet, notwithstanding of Nanse's being satisfied that the spaewife was a deceitful gipsy, perfectly untrustworthy, she would aye have a finger in the pie, and try to persuade me in a coaxing way.”
“Lightfoot, the spaewife; and to her he went for assistance.”
“For a long period almost every one, far and near, knew her as a spaewife of no ordinary knowledge.”
“Plague on her, for an auld Highland witch and spaewife," said a farmer from the Carse of Stirling; "she'll cast some of her cantrips on the cattle.”
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 280, October 27, 1827
“I have told you the spaewife -- if spaewife you would call her, for I think sorceress fitted her better -- I have said she came close to”
“The thing was done circumspectly, mind you -- nae high-handedness -- but Belle's folk were about Glen Scaur, a droll wandering band, claiming great descent from Eastern folk, and with horses and dogs and spaewife among them; and Belle (as they will be calling her) was the daughter o 'the Chief, a very proud man.”
“We had unyoked the horses and got astride, and when we came to the gate there was the bonny spaewife carrying a bairn in a tartan shawl.”
“A great ease came upon my mind; it was lightened of a load that had lain on it since ever my Tynree spaewife found, or pretended to find, in my silvered loof such an unhappy portent of my future.”
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn
“Just for an instant she wanted to push Louis over the roof, hear him smash far below on the street for daring to say the spaewife was afraid.”
“She talked to him of Lashnagar, pouring into his ears legend after legend of her people, until she came to the tale of the spaewife and the coming of the ruin upon Lashnagar.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spaewife’.
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Life is rife .................
-ife- & -iferous : common and not-so-common words about life
fructiferous, ifere, glomuliferous, graniferous, guttiferales, lifen, manifest, nimbiferous, oviferous, roriferous, petaliferous, rangifer and 105 more...
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Wives
alewife, fishwife, midwife, kalewife, goodwife, housewife, oldwife, old wives' tale, wife, wives, husband and wife, man and wife and 16 more...
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Predictionary
EXPECTED vs. SURPRISE
aberration, exception, spontaneous, synchronicity, startle, waylay, prophecy, zemblanity, inadvertent, atavism, sui generis, anomaly and 127 more...
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Wordie/Wordnik Curio Cabinet
Oddments culled from my "main" lists that belong in a display cabinet of their own, plus sundry other curiosities. :-)
zeugma, ziggurat, xiphoid, xeric, whizgigging, whangdoodle, viviparous, vivific, vinolent, verjuice, vellicate, velleity and 1193 more...
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Archaic Occupations
Some of these professions still exist today but the word for them has changed; some (mason or boatswain, for example), are still in use but are included for their rich historical associations. Som...
yeoman, summoner, chandler, ostler, carter, chapman, slaver, mason, cordwainer, cooper, glazier, dyer and 187 more...
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Femmesque
Curious words having to do with women: positive or negative; feminine, observational, technical, weird, stupid, crass, etc. I loathe some of these words but I'm using this list as a catch-all... ev...
mittelschmerz, gynotikolobomasso..., ingenue, uxorious, hogminny, quim, suffragette, damsel, madame, parturient, testatrix, mediatrix and 188 more...
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Permutations
There are 17576 different sequences of three letters (26 x 26 x 26). How many of them occur in words? General rules of engagement: mononyms only, lower case preferred to upper case, short preferred...
aaargh, niqaabi, Isaac, raad, baaed, haaf, laager, aah, kamaaina, Naajaat, aak, aalii and 637 more...
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jmjarmstrong's list
Words that I used to know.
geloscopy, hunker, willy nilly, harum scarum, whacko, meh, nork, misunderestimate, atrabiliousness, luftmensch, auxanometer, hyperhedonia and 1948 more...
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People
uxorial, frippet, chit, pink-collar, lipstick lesbian, demimonde, dulcinea, spaewife, cotquean, muliebrile, debutante, bellibone and 15 more...
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the feminine mystique
I love being a woman.
pink-collar, vagina dentata, écriture féminine, primigravida, cunt, yoni, lingam, fangast, chattel, moppet, lolita, philogynist and 52 more...
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Extrasensory Individuals
Those who connect with spirits, predict the future, and read our minds.
psychic, clairvoyant, esper, mystic, mentalist, spiritualist, spiritist, rappist, medium, channeler, agent, vessel and 57 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for spaewife.
jmjarmstrong JM just cannot see much future for a spaewife in these troubled times. Feb 16, 2011
fbharjo The term Spaewife was used as the title for several fictional works: Robert Louis Stevenson's poem "The Spaewife"; John Galt's historical romance The Spaewife: A Tale of the Scottish Chronicles; and John Boyce's The Spaewife, or, The Queen's Secret (under the pen-name Paul Peppergrass).
edit Melville
Francis Melville describes a spae-wife as a type of elf in The Book of Faeries.
"No taller than a human finger, fairy spae wives are usually dressed in the clothes of a peasant. However, when properly summoned, the attire changes from common to magnificent: blue cloak with a gem-lined collar and black lambskin hood lined with catskin, calfskin boots, and catskin gloves. Like human spae wives, they can also predict the future, through runes, tea leaves and signs generated by natural phenomena, and are good healers. They are said to be descended from the erectors of the standing stones."
wikipedia
Sep 10, 2010
whichbe Female fortune teller. (from WordCraft) May 20, 2008