wive

To "wive" is not a word you will hear at a modern wedding, but it still appears in older literature. It is an archaic verb that usually means to take a wife or to marry, especially from the man's side. In some older uses, it can also mean to find or give a wife to someone, or to marry someone off. Today we would simply say "marry," but "wive" survives in historical writing and in Shakespeare. In The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio says, "I come to wive it wealthily in Padua," meaning that he has come to marry for money.

"Wive" is an old verb from Old English, related to "wife." Its most common historical meaning is "to take a wife" or "to marry," especially when the subject is a man. In that sense, it names the act from one side of the marriage rather than describing the union in a neutral modern way. That is why it often sounds formal, literary, or tied to an earlier social world.

There is also another historical use that matters: "wive" can mean to provide someone with a wife, to find him a wife, or to marry him off. Older texts sometimes use it in this broader arranging sense, not only for the man's own act of marrying. That extra meaning is easy to miss if you only know the Shakespearean line, but it is part of the word's history.

You will not hear someone today say, "I plan to wive next year" because modern English simply uses "marry." Still, the word is worth knowing because it appears in older drama, poetry, and prose, where it can carry ideas of intention, social ambition, family arrangement, or marriage from a distinctly historical point of view. It has mostly disappeared from everyday speech, but it remains useful for reading older English with more precision.