Today is SC's second wedding anniversary. Being aware of this fact, the medical school demiurge attending physician who controls scheduling for Mrs. SC thoughtfully placed exams on the days before and after, as well as a final presentation elsewhere within the week. In order to accomodate Mrs. SC's schedule, the happy couple chose to celebrate a day early.
In commemoration of the event, and also because your host is frankly a little exhausted after cranking out a magazine-length book review, a riff on language relating to married life.
Webster's gives the etymology of husband as:
Etymology: Middle English husbonde, from Old English husbonda master of a house, from Old Norse husbOndi, from hus house + bOndi householder; akin to Old Norse bua to inhabit; akin to Old English buan to dwell
Oddly, the etymology of "bank" is not "householder holder". However, "mortgage" really is derived from the Latin mortuus, meaning "dead", so it can't be said that bankers don't understand their relationship to husbands. Or, given that Mrs. SC's earning potential is likely to immediately double up on SC's after medical school, wives.
"Wife" has a boring etymology, unfortunately, being derived from an Old German term that basically just means "woman". "Lady" is more interesting, being derived from Old English words that translate to modern English as "bread kneader". If the man knows what's good for him, he won't let the bread out of his sight.
The ball and chain appears to have first been used to immobilize prisoners at London's Clink Prison, which dates back to the early 1500s. As a term for an unhappy husband to refer to his wife, one source claims that it dates to the 1920s. Ambrose Bierce, however, defined "affianced" as "fitted with an ankle-ring for the ball-and-chain" in his "Devil's Dictionary", published in parts between 1881 and 1906. SC humbly suggests that the reader desirous of preserving marital harmony never even admit to having heard the phrase; fortunately, this advice is not grounded in personal experience.For what it's worth, Bierce was probably the wrong man to be giving advice on marriage (scroll down for relevant entry). In all honesty, as with the acknowledgements section of books, so with SC's domestic life; infinitely improved by the Mrs.' contributions, and all mistakes properly attributed to him alone ([especially the yard -- ed.]).
One custom that SC has never quite been able to understand is the association of various materials with anniversary years, especially the modern reinterpretations. According to this list, it's our "cotton anniversary". Your host supposes that if Chez SC was less than fully furnished (where Mrs. SC has oddly redefined "furnished" not to include seven of these), he would not object to informing well-wishers of the need for cotton something-or-other. But he would hope that if he ever had the gall to casually tell anyone that "we're coming up on our appliance anniversary", that they would display the requisite good graces, and beat him senseless.
Just wanted to say that "wife" is said to be traced back to Tocharian B - where it has a much more interesting derivation. It meant "female pudenda" or "vulva."
Cool, huh? Many different forms of words relating to women are traced to the Tocharian B k/wyf/b form, IIRC>
Posted by: Linda | February 18, 2007 at 01:51 PM
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Posted by: hypotheek wiki | March 10, 2009 at 12:41 AM