Wife (OED)

1. a. A woman: formerly in general sense; in later use restricted to a woman of humble rank or ‘of low employment’ (J.), esp. one engaged in the sale of some commodity.

1825 BROCKETT N.C. Gloss., Wife, a woman, whether married or not. ‘An apple wife’,‘a fish wife’,‘A tripe wife’. 1859 TENNYSON Guinevere 55 She..shuddered, as the village wife who cries ‘I shudder, some one steps across my grave.’

 2. a. A woman joined to a man by marriage; a married woman. Correlative of HUSBAND n. 2. (The ordinary current sense.)

3, c. (a) euphem. A kept mistress, concubine.