英语词汇better half的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

better half. Originally these words bore no hint of male chauvinism, applying to a husband as well as a wife and meant to be taken seriously. The expression can be traced back to the Roman poet Horace, who called his old friend Maecenas his better half. But the term became common in England only about 1570, not long before Sir Philip Sidney began writing his prose romance Arcadia (1580). The Puritans had used the phrase to describe the soul, the better half of the person, but Sidney popularized its use as a description of either partner in a marriage. For three centuries husbands and wives called their mates my better half without any humor intended. It wasn’t much more than a century ago that it began to be used jocularly and mainly in reference to a wife.

词汇	better half
词源	better half. Originally these words bore no hint of male chauvinism, applying to a husband as well as a wife and meant to be taken seriously. The expression can be traced back to the Roman poet Horace, who called his old friend Maecenas his better half. But the term became common in England only about 1570, not long before Sir Philip Sidney began writing his prose romance Arcadia (1580). The Puritans had used the phrase to describe the soul, the better half of the person, but Sidney popularized its use as a description of either partner in a marriage. For three centuries husbands and wives called their mates my better half without any humor intended. It wasn’t much more than a century ago that it began to be used jocularly and mainly in reference to a wife.
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