Definitions for "Goodwife"
Woman who married a GOODMAN. Often the title was shortened to "GOODY". If you come across names such as Goody Bassett or Goody Jones, they are not actual first names but the abbreviation of the title GOODWIFE.
Goodwife, usually abbreviated Goody, was a courtesy title of married women, formerly used where Missus (Mrs.) would be used today. Its male counterpart is Goodman. The terms were used in Puritan New England: They are also the forms of address used in Arthur Miller's historical fiction The Crucible, and Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a famous short story entitled Young Goodman Brown.
Keywords:  mistress, house
The mistress of a house.