(hŭzˈbənd)
noun- A man joined to a another person in marriage; a male spouse.
- Chiefly British A manager or steward, as of a household.
- Archaic A prudent, thrifty manager.
transitive verb hus·band·ed,
hus·band·ing,
hus·bands - To use sparingly or economically; conserve: husband one's energy.
- Archaic To find a husband for.
Word History: The English word
husband, even though it is a basic kinship term, is not a native English word. It comes ultimately from the Old Norse word
hūsbōndi, meaning “master of a house,” which was borrowed into Old English as
hūsbōnda. The second element in
hūsbōndi, bōndi, means “a man who has land and stock” and comes from the Old Norse verb
būa, meaning “to live, dwell, have a household.” The master of the house was usually a spouse as well, of course, and it would seem that the main modern sense of
husband arises from this overlap. When the Norsemen settled in Anglo-Saxon England, they would often take Anglo-Saxon women as their wives; it was then natural to refer to the husband using the Norse word for the concept, and to refer to the wife with her Anglo-Saxon (Old English) designation,
wīf, “woman, wife” (Modern English
wife). Interestingly, Old English did have a feminine word related to Old Norse
hūsbōndi that meant “mistress of a house,” namely,
hūsbonde. Had this word survived into Modern English, it would have sounded identical to
husband—surely leading to ambiguities.
