Husband

How to spell husband

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce husband

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does husband mean?

1. nounA man to whom another person is married.
2. verbTo use or manage a resource sparingly and wisely.

Husband in a sentence

• noun

  Her husband collected the children from school every afternoon.

• verb

  The farmer learned to husband his water supply through the long dry season.

• noun

  The couple bought their first home shortly after she met her husband.

• verb

  Investors who husband their savings tend to weather downturns better.

Where does husband come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The word husband comes from the Old Norse húsbóndi, a compound of hús meaning 'house' and bóndi meaning 'dweller' or 'freeholder who occupies the land'. Norse settlers brought the term into late Old English, where it first meant the master of a household, the man who owned and managed the home and its land. From that idea of a steward grew the verb sense 'to manage carefully', since a good householder used his resources wisely. Only later, by the 1300s, did the dominant modern meaning of 'a married man' settle in, displacing the older native term 'wer'. The 'band' ending is a fossil of bóndi and has nothing to do with the modern word band, which is exactly why writers sometimes pause over its spelling.

How the word is built

• hus- (from Old Norse hús: house)
• -band (from bóndi: dweller, occupier)