I know what a midwife is. What the heck is a “widwife”?
The term came to my attention today whilst following the tweets of a friend whose wife is in labor. At first I thought it was a typo, but then I realized he was using the term regularly. So then I thought perhaps he had a dyslexic relationship with the word midwife, except that an internet search turns up thousands and thousands of references to “widwife” on the web. However, the dictionary and etymology sites that I’ve consulted thus far have no such entry. Is this just some kind of massively common misspelling/typographical error committed upon the word “midwife”? I find that hard to believe, given the position of the letters “m” and “w” on the keyboard. What gives? Anyone have the scoop? Even Wikipedia is silent on the issue, though Wiktionary offered the oh-so-helpful definition of “midwife”. If it’s not an extraordinarly common error, does it signify some specially qualified midwife? Or one who works in some niche in the industry? Perhaps a cultural variant? HELP!
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I wonder if it dates back to the dates when “witch” referred to “wise woman who knew about herbs”, one of the earliest forms of doctors. Could it be a “witch midwife”?
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I’m not sure about Gene L’s answer, but I personally think it’s probably a typo. As the other contributor said, there are fewer than 2900 Google results.
The word “midwife” was mentioned in a lot of the instances of “widwife” that I researched, which indicates that either it’s an unusually common but rarely corrected typo, or some sort of regional slang or colloquialism..
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Not a term you see everyday and certainly not one any American might be familiar with or had even heard of before…
and it’s not a misspell either….
“Widwife” is a new (U.K.) government benefit for men who are widowed (get it? “wid – wife”)….the “widwife” visits all the men and cooks/cleans/shags (yes…THAT shag) them all like a substitute wife.
What a concept, eh?
Apparently not a highly publicized female vocation, which probably accounts for the lack of hits on a net. search.
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As Crazy as it sounds, I think Gene L is right. It kind of makes sense, judging by our American ability to reinterpret languages into our own use and spelling. I.E. Gene L’s version vs. what we see it as today; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwife
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the low numbers (only 2900 google hits) make me think it is a typo.
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