breadwinner

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

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From bread +‎ winner, where to win = to earn. Compare West Frisian breawinning (livelihood, literally bread-winning), Dutch broodwinning (livelihood).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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breadwinner (plural breadwinners)

  1. The primary income-earner in a household.
    • 1865, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Wives and Daughters, Chapter I:
      At one side lay the little town of Hollingford, into a street of which Mr. Gibson's front door opened; and delicate columns, and little puffs of smoke were already beginning to rise from many a cottage chimney where some housewife was already up, and preparing breakfast for the bread-winner of the family.
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Translations

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