husband

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See also: Husband

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English husbonde, housbonde, from Old English hūsbonda, hūsbunda (“male head of a household, householder, master of a house”), 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).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈhʌz.bənd/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Audio(file)

Noun[edit]

husband (plural husbands)

  1. The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.
  2. A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.
  3. 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.
    • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
      The husband and wife are one person in law.
    • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, 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.
  6. (UK) 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. (UK dialectal) A polled tree; a pollard.

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Hypernyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • ⇒ Chinese: 黑漆板凳 (hēiqī bǎndèng) (obsolete)
  • → Japanese: ハズバンド (hazubando)

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

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.
  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.
  4. (transitive) To provide with a husband.
  5. (transitive) To engage or act as a husband to; assume the care of or responsibility for; accept as one's own.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Noun[edit]

husband (plural husbands)

  1. Alternative form of husbonde

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

hus (“house”) +‎ band (“band”)

Noun[edit]

husband n

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

Declension[edit]

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