HOUSEHUSBAND

We always think it's sexist for a woman to assume the role of housewife, and nowadays many families also have stay-at-home dads, or, as influenced by housewife, househusbands. This latter word is a sinful mangling of a nice English word, and redundant on top of that. To explain, the word husband comes from the Old English term husbunda, or, quite literally, "male master of a house". This is probably from Old Norse husbundi, because its components definitely are: hus meant "house" and bondi generally meant "denizen" or "resident" (so a househusband is a "house house resident"). Hus is a very Germanic word, from PGmc husa and an unknown PIE source. Bondi, through Proto-Germanic buana ("dwell"), is from Proto-Indo-European bhuh, "to become". Interestingly, husbandry, the "cultivation of plants and animals", traces to that old meaning of "master of a house", which was extended to "master of a farm", then "farming" in general.