Wiktionary

husband

See also: Husband

EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ˈhʌz.bənd/
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EtymologyEdit

From Middle English husbonde, housbonde, from Old English hūsbonda, hūsbunda (“male head of a household, householder, master of a house”), probably from Old Norse húsbóndi (“master of house”), from hús (“house”) + bóndi (“dweller, householder”), equivalent to house +‎ bond (“serf, slave", originally, "dweller”).

Bond in turn represents a formation derived from the present participle of West Scandinavian búa, East Scandinavian bôa = to build, plow; compare German bauen, der Bauende. Cognate with Icelandic húsbóndi (“head of household”), Faroese húsbóndi (“husband”), Norwegian husbond (“head of household, husband”), Swedish husbonde (“master”), Danish husbond (“husband”) (< Old Danish husbonde).

NounEdit

husband (plural husbands)

  1. (obsolete) The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.
  2. (obsolete) A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: Printed [by Richard Field] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 932900760, book IV, canto III:
      […] a withered tree, through husbands toyle, / Is often seene full freshly to have florisht […]
    • (Can we date this quote by George Hakewill and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
      the painful husband, ploughing up his ground
    • (Can we date this quote by John Evelyn and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
      He is the neatest husband for curious ordering his domestick and field accommodations.
  3. (archaic) A prudent or frugal manager.
    • 1645, Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times, Occasional Meditations: V:
      God knows how little time is left me, and may I be a good husband, to improve the short remnant thereof.
    • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, Chapter 16:
      So I went and fetched a good dram of rum, and gave him; for I had been so good a husband of my rum that I had a great deal left. When he had drank it, I made him take the two fowling-pieces, which we always carried, and load them with large swan-shot, as big as small pistol-bullets. Then I took four muskets, and loaded them with two slugs and five small bullets each; and my two pistols I loaded with a brace of bullets each. I hung my great sword, as usual, naked, by my side, and gave Friday his hatchet.
  4. A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.
    You should start dating so you can find a suitable husband.
    • (Can we date this quote by William Blackstone and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
      The husband and wife are one person in law.
    • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0016:
      A great bargain also had been […] the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair.
    • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:
      But Sophia's mother was not the woman to brook defiance. After a few moments' vain remonstrance her husband complied. His manner and appearance were suggestive of a satiated sea-lion.
  5. The male of a pair of animals.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
  6. (Britain) A manager of property; one who has the care of another's belongings, owndom, or interests; a steward; an economist.
  7. A large cushion with arms meant to support a person in the sitting position.
    While reading her book, Sally leaned back against her husband, wishing it were the human kind.
  8. (Britain dialectal) A polled tree; a pollard.

SynonymsEdit

AntonymsEdit

HypernymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

Derived terms

TranslationsEdit

VerbEdit

husband (third-person singular simple present husbands, present participle husbanding, simple past and past participle husbanded)

  1. (transitive) To manage or administer carefully and frugally; use to the best advantage; economise.
    For my means, I'll husband them so well, / They shall go far. — Shakespeare.
  2. (transitive) To conserve.
    • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
      ...I found pens, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the utmost; and I shall show that while my ink lasted, I kept things very exact, but after that was gone I could not, for I could not make any ink by any means that I could devise.
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To till; cultivate; farm; nurture.
    • (Can we date this quote by Evelyn and provide title, author's full name, and other details?)
      Land so trim and rarely husbanded.
  4. (transitive) To provide with a husband.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
  5. (transitive) To engage or act as a husband to; assume the care of or responsibility for; accept as one's own.

Derived termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

Middle EnglishEdit

NounEdit

husband (plural husbands)

  1. Alternative form of husbonde

SwedishEdit

EtymologyEdit

hus (“house”) +‎ band (“band”)

NounEdit

husband n

  1. a group of musicians who regularly play live in a TV show

DeclensionEdit

Declension of husband 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative husband husbandet husband husbanden
Genitive husbands husbandets husbands husbandens
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