Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A helpmate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A partner; a helpmate; a consort; specifically, a wife.
Wiktionary
- n. A helpful partner, particularly a spouse.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A wife; a helpmate.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a helpful partner
Etymologies
- From a (mis?)interpretation of the phrase in Genesis 2:18 "an help meet" for Adam (i.e. suitable for him). (Wiktionary)
- From misunderstanding of the phrase an help meet for him, a helper suitable for him (Adam), in Genesis 2:18, referring to Eve. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“No, no! Mrs. G., as he commonly called his helpmeet, might do that sort of thing, but she must n't bother him about it.”
“So far as I can see, the average husband, actual or to be, still entertains the conviction that the word helpmeet, being interpreted, means second fiddle; and acts in accordance with that honest conviction.”
“A dutiful servile helpmeet, that is what the script they have to work from always said to me.”
“Daughters should practice being a "helpmeet" to their fathers, training to someday "serve" those godly husbands God will send their way.”
The Huffington Post: Frank Schaeffer: We Need Freedom From Religion Not Just Freedom of Religion
“I had never seen the word "helpmeet" before, which shows up as an error in blogger.com.”
“I understand the Scriptural word "helpmeet," as applied to wife, in the New England sense of "help.”
“Women are taught, almost from the moment they come into the world, that their chief end in existence is to be, in some way or other, a "helpmeet" for man.”
“I am confident that you will be 'helpmeet' for the man, and since he will ask no more, his parish has no right to do it.”
“I don't know as you'd have to look more'n a hundred miles for the very young woman that would make the right kind of helpmeet for you, but you know best about that.”
“The very moment that he placed the first being in a relation to another by giving him a "helpmeet," he gave him”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘helpmeet’.
-
The Troublesome Offspring Of Cardinal...
Words and names discovered or re-discovered while reading and re-reading this awesome book.
LOUIS DE BERNIÈRES, the Navantes, the Cusicuari, the Kogi, the Acahuatecs, Mount Aconcagua, Hoy, miedo, escandalice, puede, hablar, ingenio and 328 more...
-
sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
-
Monovocalics
Words that have only one of the vowels. On this list I include only words with at least three vowels. When I first started the list, if a word had several forms, I generally listed only the one wit...
syzygy, mirific, cumulus, homolog, monocot, bedewed, jezebel, referee, bikini, minikin, locomotor, terebenthene and 2359 more...
-
2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
-
Ghost words
Words that were mistakenly included in dictionaries.
-
Words I've Found While Reading and Di...
see title
demijohn, eiderdown, aeolotropic, haptic, fecundity, mojibake, stochastic, nibble, homoskedastic, Entscheidungsproblem, hirsute, mutule and 68 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for helpmeet.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.