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 hiisbonda, answering to the Old Norwegian hiisb6ndi, and means the owner or freeholder of a hus, or house . The last part of the word still survives in " bondage " and " bond-man," 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 hiswif 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 " husbandlnd," 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, 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 " ship's 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, makescharter-parties and acts generally as manager of the ship's employment . Where such an agent is himself one of the owners of the vessel, the name of " managing owner " is used . The " ship's 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 .