Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Husband" to "Hydrolysis"

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Husband" to "Hydrolysis" - Volume 14, Slice 1

HUSBAND, properly the head of a household, but now chiefly used in the sense of a man legally joined by marriage to a woman, his wife; the legal relations between them are treated below under Husband and Wife. The word appears in O. Eng. as hsbonda, answering to the Old Norwegian hsbndi, and means the owner or freeholder of a hus, or house. The last part of the word still survives in bondage and bondman, and is derived from bua, to dwell, which, like Lat. colere, means also to till or cultivate, and to have a household. Wife, in O. Eng. wif, appears in all Teutonic languages except Gothic; cf. Ger. Weib, Dutch wijf, &c., and meant originally simply a female, woman itself being derived from wifman, the pronunciation of the plural wimmen still preserving the original i. Many derivations of wife have been given; thus it has been connected with the root of weave, with the Gothic waibjan, to fold or wrap up, referring to the entangling clothes worn by a woman, and also with the root of vibrare, to tremble. These are all merely guesses, and the ultimate history of the word is lost. It does not appear outside Teutonic languages. Parallel to husband is housewife, the woman managing a household. The earlier hswif was pronounced hussif, and this pronunciation survives in the application of the word to a small case containing scissors, needles and pins, cottons, &c. From this form also derives hussy, now only used in a depreciatory sense of a light, impertinent girl. Beyond the meaning of a husband as a married man, the word appears in connexion with agriculture, in husbandry and husbandman. According to some authorities husbandman meant originally in the north of England a holder of a husbandland, a manorial tenant who held two ox-gangs or virgates, and ranked next below the yeoman (see J. C. Atkinson in Notes and Queries, 6th series, vol. xii., and E. Bateson, History of Northumberland, ii., 1893). From the idea of the manager of a household, husband was in use transferred to the manager of an estate, and the title was held by certain officials, especially in the great trading companies. Thus the husband of the East India Company looked after the interests of the company at the custom-house. The word in this sense is practically obsolete, but it still appears in ships husband, an agent of the owners of a ship who looks to the proper equipping of the vessel, and her repairs, procures and adjusts freights, keeps the accounts, makes charter-parties and acts generally as manager of the ships employment. Where such an agent is himself one of the owners of the vessel, the name of managing owner is used. The ships husband or managing owner must register his name and address at the port of registry (Merchant Shipping Act 1894, 59). From the use of husband for a good and thrifty manager of a household, the verb to husband means to economize, to lay up a store, to save. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

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Ebook Number: 40538
Author: Various
Release Date: Aug 19, 2012
Format: eBook
Language: English