奥さん
おくさん
hepburn okusan
wife (someone else's, polite)
Part of speech · noun
Pattern visualization
no decomposition available
Examples
- 奥さんは元気ですか。How is your wife?
- 奥さんは料理が上手です。Your wife is a great cook.
Collocations
奥さん (okusan, your/his wife)妻 (tsuma, my wife — humble)家内 (kanai, my wife — old-style humble)奥様 (okusama, very polite "your wife")奥さん! (okusan!, shop call to female customer)
Mnemonic
奥 (oku) = the deep interior. 奥さん literally "the lady of the inner chambers" — historically the wife who lived in the deeper part of a traditional home. Used for someone else's wife (out-group). One's own wife = 妻 (tsuma) or older-style 家内 (kanai, "inside the house"). Shopkeepers also call out 奥さん! to any female customer — here it's a vocative, not literal.
Quick check
What social structure does 奥さん's "inner-person" etymology reflect?