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I know that "el marido" means "the husband" and that it can also be translated as "spouse," but I see no strong evidence that one would refer to a spouse of feminine biological gender as "una marida." Just because I don't see evidence of it doesn't mean that it couldn't be considered correct. Can anyone tell me if any of the following would sound strange to a native speaker of Spanish:

El nombre de su marida es María.

Ella es una marida y una madre.

Su madre es la marida de un soldado.

Or, is use of "marida" just not commonly used? What word do Spanish speakers typically use to refer to a person's wife and does it differ from region to region or whether or not a person is talking about his own wife versus wives in general?

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    marida is like the usage of poor Spanish. I remember hearing some people saying it. Well, it doesn't exist though.
    – Schwale
    Jul 15, 2016 at 23:25
  • Only one instance i can remeber it being uttered for comedic effect.., in Les Luthier's "Ya no te amo raul". m.youtube.com/watch?v=1lhLRWZSBa4
    – Paul
    Jul 18, 2016 at 2:51
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    "...*el marido* [...] can also be translated as spouse". I've never encountered this usage, very likely because marido means specifically married man (Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la Lengua Española). The feminine of marido is mujer o esposa. Marida is a non-word.
    – Koldito
    Jul 22, 2016 at 13:24
  • @Alejandro If someone says something, it does exist.
    – Lambie
    May 3, 2021 at 14:16

3 Answers 3

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There are words that have masculine and feminine but there are others that don't.

Even in English you have horse and mare (caballo yegua), bull and cow (toro vaca), husband and wife (marido y mujer / esposo y esposa)

For the feminine of "marido" we use among others: cónyuge, mujer, señora, compañera, consorte, esposa, pareja, costilla, media naranja (the last two are colloquial and may vary regionally).

As a verb, "maridar" does exist and means "pairing" but it is rarely used except in the context of pairing food and wine.

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    Because marido derives from the Latin "mas", meaning "male", like macho, masculino and English word male.
    – Rodrigo
    Jul 15, 2016 at 20:11
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    @Rodrigo While that is true, interestingly Latin does have a feminine equivalent unlike Spanish: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/marita#Latin Jul 15, 2016 at 20:18
  • @TreeHouse196 oops, your comment invalidates mine.
    – Rodrigo
    Jul 15, 2016 at 20:23
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    So many good answers that it was difficult to decide on one, but I'm giving it to @DGaleano for the number of alternatives he has given for "marida" and for confirming my suspicions that it is rarely used. I want everyone to know that I thought the comments were also very good and upvoted those that added to my knowledge base. Gracias a todos para tomar el tiempo contribuir!
    – Lisa Beck
    Jul 17, 2016 at 19:29
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    Good answer. The last two words made me laugh, I haven't heard them before. I believe consorta is a very old word and I don't believe is used nowadays, you may find it in old novels, but anyway is a valid word although very wear if you use it. I would like to add more colloquial words that vary regionally: In Chile we say "pierna" for referring to one's partner, despite the gender. There are some variations when you want to specify the gender, you can say "pierna peluda" to refer to a man and "pierna suave" for a woman. Jul 18, 2016 at 2:31
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"Marida" as a noun does not exist in Spanish.

The word "marido" is commonly used in pair with "mujer". If you want the male and female words to be of the same root, you can use "esposo/esposa". The term "cónyuge" can be used for both male and female.

Source: http://www.wikilengua.org/index.php/esposo

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Por añadir algo, en el CORDE solo se recogen un par de casos de marida = esposa (los restantes corresponden al verbo maridar = casarse):

  • Si va a decir la verdad, señores alcaldes, tan marida es Mari Cobeña de Tozuelo, y él marido della, como lo es mi madre de mi padre y mi padre de mi madre.
    (Cervantes, Los trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda, 1616)

  • Superior, superiora, previsora, afable, jefa, médica, alcaldesa, princesa, albañila, marida.
    (Herrero Mayor, Avelino, Diálogo argentino de la lengua, 1954-1967)

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  • Curioso que uno de los casos sea precisamente del Príncipe de los Ingenios.
    – Charlie
    Mar 14, 2018 at 7:03

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