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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A man joined to a woman in marriage; a male spouse.
  2. n. Chiefly British A manager or steward, as of a household.
  3. n. Archaic A prudent, thrifty manager.
  4. v. To use sparingly or economically; conserve: husband one's energy.
  5. v. Archaic To find a husband for.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.
  2. n. A man joined in marriage to a woman, who bears the correlative title of wife.
  3. n. A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.
  4. n. A manager of property; one who has the care of another's belongings or interests; a steward; an economist.
  5. n. A polled tree; a pollard: so called in humorous allusion to the traditional bald head of husbands with energetic wives.
  6. To manage or administer carefully and frugally; use to the best advantage; economize: as, to husband one's resources.
  7. To till, as land; cultivate; farm.
  8. To provide with a husband.
  9. To engage or act as a husband to; figuratively, to assume the care of or responsibility for; accept as one's own.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.
  2. n. Large cushion with arms meant to support a person in the sitting position.
  3. v. To conserve
  4. v. to nurture, to farm.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. The male head of a household; one who orders the economy of a family.
  2. n. A cultivator; a tiller; a husbandman.
  3. n. One who manages or directs with prudence and economy; a frugal person; an economist.
  4. n. A married man; a man who has a wife; -- the correlative to wife.
  5. n. The male of a pair of animals.
  6. v. To direct and manage with frugality; to use or employ to good purpose and the best advantage; to spend, apply, or use, with economy.
  7. v. To cultivate, as land; to till.
  8. v. To furnish with a husband.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a married man; a woman's partner in marriage
  2. v. use cautiously and frugally

Etymologies

  1. Middle English huseband, from Old English hūsbōnda, from Old Norse hūsbōndi : hūs, house + bōndi, būandi, householder, present participle of būa, to dwell; see bheuə- in Indo-European roots.

Examples

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Comments

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  • mollusque Desdemona was propped up, regally, against a beige corduroy cushion known as a husband. The arms of this cushion encircled her.
    —Jeffrey Eugenides, 2002, Middlesex, p. 523 Aug 16, 2008

  • asativum Aha! No doubt sweetmeat will prove to have started life as a playful alternative to helpmeet, and from there it's just a hop, skip and jump to sweetbreads. Told you so.

    Thanks, sionnach! May 8, 2008

  • sionnach Asativum:

    Helpmate is indeed related to helpmeet, as the following etymology shows:

    "companion," 1715, a ghost word, altered from helpmeet, from the Biblical translation of L. adjutorium simile sibi (Gen. ii.18) as "an help meet (i.e. fit) for him" (Heb. 'ezer keneghdo), which was already by 1673 being printed as help-meet and mistaken for one word.

    Getting from helpmate to sweetbread requires not one, but two, knight's moves. Another example of why I love wordie-members so much.

    Pterodactyl:

    Don't forget that another rhyme for 'wife' is its Cockney slang version 'trouble and strife'. May 8, 2008

  • palooka How about "The Man of the House". That has a ring to it.
    I actually like hubby - it's familiar, casual & warm. Has a sense of sweet possessiveness to it - he's my hubby. May 8, 2008

  • asativum Helpmate sounds like helpmeet, which sounds like sweetmeat, which always makes me think of sweetbreads. Blech. I mean, sweetbreads are tasty, cooked right, but not very husbandly. To me.

    OK. Sorry. Back to your thread. May 8, 2008

  • dontcry Ouch, ouch! May 8, 2008

  • bilby Do you realise that if you have a biblical helpmate you can never have children the normal way? You have to begat instead. May 8, 2008

  • arcadia I defer to sionnach; "helpmate" IS better. And I like the biblical tone it lends. May 7, 2008

  • sionnach How about 'helpmate'? 'Lover' conjures up images of perpetually mortified children, not to mention jacuzzi scenes on Saturday Night Live. May 7, 2008

  • arcadia In my opinion, "hubby" is no good. I would never call my husband that. It's like him calling me his "gal". We prefer "lover".


    May 7, 2008

  • pterodactyl I sort of like hubby, actually. I think it's sweet. May 7, 2008

  • reesetee "Hubby" should be banned; I agree. May 7, 2008

  • bilby I'd probably marry the next woman who promised not to call me hubby in this or the subsequent thousand lifetimes. May 7, 2008

  • pterodactyl Continuing the conversation that has, bewilderingly, popped up over on pterodactyl on the rise...


    I really don't like the word husband. It sounds like a Dr. Seuss character.

    As Yertle looked out over lands never seen,
    He saw thousands of Huzz-Buns, all mottled and green

    Wife, by contrast, is airy and pleasant, rather like fife or life. Why couldn't we menfolk have come up with an equally pleasant term for our own married state? May 7, 2008

‘husband’ has been looked up 2269 times, loved by 2 people, added to 25 lists, commented on 14 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.