Goodwife

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Goodwife (Scots: Guidwife), usually abbreviated Goody, was a polite form of address for women, formerly used how Mrs., Miss and Ms. are used today. Its male counterpart is Goodman. However, a woman addressed by this title was of a lesser social rank than a woman addressed as Mistress.

Goodwife and Goody were used in England, Scotland, and Colonial America, with the earliest known use circa 1325.^[1] By the mid-18th century they had become archaic outside Scotland, and they are perhaps best known today as the forms of address used in period literature, like Arthur Miller's historical fiction The Crucible.

The title also appears in the expression Goody Two-Shoes, which is sometimes credited to the 1765 children's book The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, though it was first used at least a century earlier.^[2]