husband [OE] In Old English a *wife was simply ‘a woman’, and a husband was ‘a male head of a household’ or ‘a manager or steward’, a sense preserved in expressions such as to husband your resources. The word is from Old Norse húsbondí ‘master of a house’. Not until the 13th century or so did a husband become the married partner of a woman. Around then the word also took on the meaning ‘a farmer or cultivator’ and also the verb use ‘to cultivate’, both of which are no longer used but are preserved in husbandry [ME], ‘the cultivation and care of crops and farm animals’.