different between vife vs rife

English

Noun

vife

1. (archaic) Pronunciation spelling of wife.
   • 1834, Young Hearts: A Novel by a Recluse. With a Preface by Miss Jane Porter (page 106)

     […] I said you didn't like them ere strong liquors, but if he warn't particular, I was sure you would pledge him in a glass of juniper, for I had always made you, since we had been man and vife^[sic], take a drop afore you went to market, to keep cold out.

Usage notes

Imitating Cockney speech, where /v/ often replaced /w/.

Anagrams

• Five, five

English

Etymology

From Middle English rife, from Old English r?fe, r?fe (“rife, abundant, frequent”), from Proto-Germanic *r?baz (“generous”), from Proto-Indo-European *reyp- (“to tear (off), rip”). Cognate with West Frisian rju (“rife, much”), Low German rive (“abundant, munificent”), Dutch rijf (“abundant, copious”), Icelandic rífr (“rife, munificent”), Icelandic reifa (“to bestow”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?a?f/
• Rhymes: -a?f

Adjective

rife (comparative rifer, superlative rifest)

1. Widespread, common, prevalent, current (mainly of unpleasant or harmful things).
   • 1712, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies

     Before the plague of London, inflammations of the lungs were rife and mortal.

   • 1900, Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Avon Books, (translated by James Strachey) pg. 170:

     The 'denominational considerations' mentioned below relate, of course, to anti-Semitic feeling, which was already rife in Vienna during the last years of the nineteenth century.
2. Abounding; present in large numbers, plentiful.

3. Full of (mostly unpleasant or harmful things).
   • 2013, Daniel Taylor, Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic climbs highest to sink Benfica (in The Guardian, 15 May 2013)[1]

     They will have to reflect on a seventh successive defeat in a European final while Chelsea try to make sense of an eccentric season rife with controversy and bad feeling but once again one finishing on an exhilarating high.

4. (obsolete) Having power; active; nimble.
   • 1661, John Webster and William Rowley, A Cure for a Cuckold

     What! I am rife a little yet.

Synonyms

• (widespread): pandemic, ubiquitous; see also Thesaurus:widespread
• (abounding, plentiful): filled; see also Thesaurus:plentiful

Derived terms

• rifely
• rifeness

Translations

Adverb

rife (comparative more rife, superlative most rife)

1. Plentifully, abundantly.

Translations

Anagrams

• -fier, FIRE, Fier, Frie, fier, fire, refi, reif, rief

Spanish

Verb

rife

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of rifar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of rifar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of rifar.