Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HUS'BAND, n. [s as z. Sax. husbonda; hus, house, and buend, a farmer or cultivator, or an inhabitant, from byan, to inhabit or till, contracted from bugian; Dan. huusbonde; Sw. husbonde; Sw. byggia, Dan. bygger, to build; D. bouwen, G. bauen, to build, to till, to plow or cultivate; G. bauer, a builder, a countryman, a clown, a rustic, a boor; D. buur, the last component part of neighbor. Band, bond, in this word, is the participle of buan, byan, that is, buend, occupying, tilling, and husband is the farmer or inhabitant of the house, in Scottish, a farmer; thence the sense of husbandry. It had no relation primarily to marriage; but among the common people, a woman calls her consort, my man, and the man calls his wife, my woman, as in Hebrew, and in this instance, the farmer or occupier of the house, or the builder, was called my farmer; or by some other means, husband came to denote the consort of the female head of the family.]

1. A man contracted or joined to a woman by marriage. A man to whom a woman is betrothed, as well as one actually united by marriage, is called a husband. Lev. xix. Deut. xxii.
2. In seamen's language, the owner of a ship who manages its concerns in person. Mar. Dict.
3. The male of animals of a lower order. Dryden.
4. An economist; a good manager; a man who knows and practices the methods of frugality and profit. In this sense, the word is modified by an epithet; as, a good husband; a bad husband. [But in America, this application of the word is little or not at all used.] Davies. Collier.
5. A farmer; a cultivator; a tiller of the ground. [In this sense, it is not used in America. We always use husband-man.] Bacon. Dryden.