elfwife

Noun

elfwife (plural elfwives)

1. A married female elf.
   • The Spanish Hidalgo loses his Elf-wife by pronouncing a sacred name, and the Metal Boat of the Prince Amrad sinks under the same bann.1824, John Macculloch, The Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, volume IV, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, page 326
   • Elidyr, the elf-wife,
     Keeps a small tavern
     In a moss-carpeted,
     Fern-curtained cavern.1924 June 7, Illustrated News Budget, Brisbane, page 25, column 4
2. The human wife of a male elf.
   • Here the woman learned that the Elf-wife could not be delivered without the aid of a Christian woman, she being herself a Christian, but had been carried off by the Elf-man.1851, Benjamin Thorpe, Northern Mythology, volume II, London: Edward Lumley, page 128
   • During his absence the elfwife took the opportunity of instructing her helper as to her conduct when he returned; and the first and chief point of her advice was to eat nothing that was offered her.1891, Edwin Sidney Hartland, The Science of Fairy Tales, London: Walter SCott, page 40