English
husband
Husband comes from Middle English husbonde ‘a husband’, and goes back to Old English hūsbonda ‘master of the house’.
- Old Englishc. 450–1150hūsbonda1‘master of the house’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500husbonde1‘a husband’
- Englishearliest quotation 1596husband1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English husband
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book IV, Canto III: “[…] a withered tree, through husbands toyle, Is often…”.
Lineage
- Old Englishc. 450–1150hūsbondaWiktionary, English husband‘master of the house’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500husbondeWiktionary, English husband‘a husband’
- Englishearliest quotation 1596husbandWiktionary, English husband. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book IV, Canto III: “[…] a withered tree, through husbands toyle, Is often…”
A compound of hūs ‘house’ + bonda ‘husband’
Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- ‘to cover, conceal, hide’
Proto-Germanic *hūsą ‘house’
Proto-West Germanic *hūs ‘house’
Old English hūs ‘house’
Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- ‘to be, become, grow, appear’
Proto-Germanic *būaną ‘to dwell, reside’
Old Norse búa ‘to reside, to live’
Old Norse bóndi ‘farmer’
Old English bonda ‘husband’
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Today it means
noun A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “husband”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Old English hūsbonda / husband