Are Married Men "Husbands?" How About a New Term for a New Relationship?

[Pyrrho]

In my experience the term partner is used a lot, instead of husband, wife and even girlfriend or boyfriend (if the relationship is a long term one). Therefore, I believe the term partner will replace husband and wife as the most commonly used term in both heterosexual and homosexual marriages.

Many people have used the word "partner" because they are not married.  Not being married, "husband," "wife," and "spouse" would all be incorrect.  And "partner" has been chosen over "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" as a means of trying to indicate a greater level of permanence than is suggested by the terms "boyfriend" and "girlfriend."

If you do not know if a couple is married or not, then you can use the term "partner."  If the couple is married, you can use the term "spouse" if you do not know the sex of the spouse, or if you do not wish to use a term that designates the sex of the spouse.

If someone hates the word "husband," that person can always use the term "spouse."  If one does that, I would recommend also using "spouse" instead of "wife" for the sake of symmetry and consistency.


Also, not that anyone asked about this, the proper phrase is not "man and wife," but is "husband and wife" (for married people with one man and one woman; for two men, it would be "husband and husband," and two women, it would be "wife and wife").  Both are married, not just one of them.  Likewise, the correct phrases are "ladies and gentlemen," "men and women," boys and girls" (the order makes no difference, but the pairing does; the female equivalent of "gentlemen" is "ladies,", the female equivalent of "men" is "women," etc.).  Gender-neutral terms are available for most of these: "spouse," "human," "child."  Off the top of my head, I cannot think of a gender-neutral term for "gentleman," though it is a word that is not strictly necessary.