We gain an insight into the history of the word husband by considering the Old English word h¿½nde,} meaning “the mistress of a house.” If h¿½nde} had survived into Modern English,husband,its modern form,would have been very ambiguous.The fact that h¿½nde} could mean “mistress of a house” helps us see the elements that make up the Old English ancestor of our word husband.H¿scorresponds to house.The element -b½e is the feminine form of -b½,the second element of Old English h¿½nda.} The entire Old English word is a borrowing of the Old Icelandic word h¿½ndi,} meaning “the master of a house.” The second element in h¿½ndi,b½ndi,} means “a man who has land and stock” and comes from the verb b¿,meaning “to live,dwell,have a household.” The master of the house was of course usually the spouse of a wife as well,and it would seem that our main current sense of husband arises from this overlap.
考察一下古英語中husbonde 這個詞,我們就會對 husband 這個詞的歷史有一定了解,意思是“房子的女主人”.假如husbonde 這個詞能留存在現(xiàn)代英語中,作為husbonde 的現(xiàn)代形式,它的意思會變得很模糊.husbonde 的意思是“房子的女主人”,這有助于我們找出那些構(gòu)成古英語中我們今天的husband這個詞的前身.Hus對應 house .-bonde 是 -bonda 的陰性形式,古英語中 husbonda 的第二個部分.這個古英語中的詞整體上借自冰島語中的 husbondi ,意思是“房子的男主人”.husbondi,bondi 第二部分的意思是“一個擁有土地和牲畜的男子”,它來自動詞 bua ,意思是“生活、居住、擁有一個家”.一座房子的男主人當然通常也是妻子的配偶,看起來今天husband 這個詞的中心意思源于這種重疊