husband

Etymology

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈhʌz.bənd/

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Noun

husband (plural husbands)

2. A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.

   Synonym: (endearing) hubby

   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.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 6, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     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.

3. (UK) A manager of property; one who has the care of another's belongings, owndom, or interests; a steward; an economist.
4. (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 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, pages 273–274:

     [S]o I went and fetch’d 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 carry’d, 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.

5. (somewhat dated) The master of a house; the head of a family; a householder.
6. A tiller of the ground; a husbandman.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC:

     […] a withered tree, through husbands toyle,
     Is often seene full freshly to have florisht […]

   • 1627, G[eorge] H[akewill], An Apologie of the Power and Prouidence of God in the Gouernment of the World. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Iohn Lichfield and William Turner, […], →OCLC:

     The painfull husband plowing up his ground, Shall finde all fret and rust both pikes and shields

   • 1681 September 9 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 30 August 1681]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:

     He is the neatest husband for curious ordering his domestick and field accommodations.

7. The male of a pair of animals.
   • 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Husband of the Herd

8. A large cushion with arms meant to support a person in the sitting position; a husband pillow.

   While reading her book, Sally leaned back against her husband, wishing it were the human kind.

9. (UK dialectal) A polled tree; a pollard.

Verb

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.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     And for my meanes, I'll husband them so well,
     They shall go farre with little.

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.
   • 1672 May 29 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 19 May 1672]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:

     Land so trim and rarely husbanded.

4. (transitive, archaic) To provide with a husband.
   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 116, column 2:

     Thinke you, I am no ſtronger then my Sex
     Being ſo Father'd, and ſo Husbanded?

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

Noun

husband (plural husbands)

1. Alternative form of husbonde

Etymology

hus (“house”) +‎ band (“band”)

Noun

husband n

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