The word husband has been in English since, well, the days of Old English. That’s not exactly surprising. But even in words this old and common, there’s still something to be learned when we look at the roots!

Our modern English word comes from the Old English husbonda, and it meant “male head of a household.” Okay, no surprises there. The Old English is taken from Old Norse husbondi, which was literally “house-dweller.” When we break the word down, we see that hus and house are rather similar–from the same word, as a matter of fact.

So what about that -bund part? That’s from bondi, which has come to mean “dweller” from the verb bua, which is “to dwell”…but that word in turn comes from the ancient bheue…which means “to exist; to grow.” So in a way, husband actually means “house grower” or, as some have put it “house farmer.” Which is amusing enough that I wanted to share. 😉

The shortening to hubby might sound modern, but in fact it dates to the 1680s!

Now, another fun fact. Before husband gained in popularity in Old English, there was another word used for it: wer. This word, rather than having to do with being head of a household (which could apply even to an unmarried man), had evolved from being a general word for “a male person” to specifically mean “a married man.” Poets especially loved being able to pair wer and wife. But alas, wer has mostly vanished from the language…with a few rare exceptions, like werewolf (man-wolf).

Next week, we’ll take a look at wife!