Why BETTER half?

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Posted: 9 years ago

Is it a term limited to be used for the wife?

Why is she called the better half?

Does any one know how or why that term came into use?

Please share if you know? All views are also welcome😊

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Shahid Ashrif

@Deepthought

Explorer

Posted: 9 years ago

Originally posted by: zorrro
Is it a term limited to be used for the wife?
Why is she called the better half?
Does any one know how or why that term came into use?

Please share if you know? All views are also welcome😊

A quick internet search produced the following:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/my-better-half.html

My better half

My husband or my wife.Meaning

Origin

This term wasn't originally restricted to referring to one's spouse as we use it now, but to a dear friend. It was used that way by the Roman poet Horace and later by Statius. The allusion then was to a friend so dear that he/she was more than half of a person's being. That meaning persists, although these days, if the term is used seriously rather than sarcastically, it is generally considered to mean 'the superior half of a married couple'. That is, better in quality rather than in quantity.

Sir Philip Sidney was the first to put into print the use of this phrase to mean spouse, in The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia, 1580:

"My deare, my better halfe (sayd hee) I find I must now leaue thee."

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casper

@Roadrunnerz

Voyager

Posted: 9 years ago

Because she reminds her other half of his every mistake simultaneously denying him the opportunity to talk about her mistakes. 😆

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413226

Suspended

Posted: 9 years ago

came across this...

Because after marriage, you are no longer two different persons, but are supposed to become one. Then, you are each-others better half (incomplete without each other)