131 sats \ 11 replies \ @SaloonCat 30 Apr \ parent \ on: Stacker Saloon
Very interesting, as always.
I was looking at the word 'husband' a few days ago, wondering whether or how it is related to 'husbandry' in the agricultural sense. I suspected it conveyed a sense of looking after one's wife in the same way as one's cattle, but it's not so. It only means the master of the house, and it comes from the old Norse.
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=husband
That replaced the word 'wer' from Old English, so previously husband and wife would have been wer and wife. The dictionary also reveals that wer only lives on in werewolf, but I'd like to see a wer revival.
I'd always understood Esquire to be a consolation prize for the sons that weren't the eldest, so those that would go without a title. That corresponds to Chinese, where Mister is XianSheng 先生, literally 'first born'. I don't know whence comes the use of Esquire for the son of a father with the same name, I think it's an American tradition.
Husband
Although the common meaning behind the word husband since the year 1290 means “married man”, it holds its roots from an Old Norse and Icelandic word “husbondi” which meant “householder”, with the word “bondi” meaning “a peasant who owned his house and land”.
Note: being a peasant meant clear title to any property was forbidden, with ownership only allowed.
“Bondi” also meant bond, with the word “husbondi” being a combination of the word “house” and “bond”, referring to a “serf” or “bonded slave” living in a house, also known as a “dweller”.
Over time, the term “husbandry” referred to the “care of a household” or “shrewd use of resources”, with women looking for a “man with resources” and, once found, would gain a “husband”.
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Lux is on fire today !
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Wife is elusive and mysterious in this regard, as only seems fitting.
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I'll hazard a guess though, that it shares a source with white and carries the sense of divine purity. You could read The White Goddess by Robert Graves for more on that history.
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Shrewd is another interesting word. Plus ca change...
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