From Old English 'wīf' (woman — any woman, not specifically married). The word narrowed from 'woman' to 'married woman' as 'woman' (from 'wīfmann' = female person) took over the general sense. 'Midwife' preserves the old meaning: the woman who is with the mother.
A married woman considered in relation to her spouse.
From Old English 'wīf' (woman, female person), from Proto-Germanic *wībą (woman). The word originally meant simply 'woman' — any woman, married or not. The narrowing to 'married woman' happened gradually during the Middle English period, as 'woman' (from 'wīfmann', literally 'female person') replaced 'wife' in the
'Woman' literally means 'wife-man' — from Old English 'wīfmann' (female person), where 'wīf' meant woman and 'mann' meant person (not specifically male). So 'woman' contains 'wife' and 'man', but neither originally meant what they mean today: 'wife' meant any woman, and 'man' meant any person. 'Midwife' preserves the old sense