"the" wife

[Andrea Vine]

Not to mention the mirror on the passenger side visor...(oops, too late)

Peter Richardson wrote:
>
> Yesterday our laminate installer said he'd be on the job today "as soon as
> the wife leaves for work." "The wife" has been around for a long time, but
> has anyone ever heard "the husband" used the same way? e.g. "I'll leave as
> soon as the husband gets back with the car." My sense is that most women
> would say MY husband. "The wife" smacks of "So how's the wife and kids,
> Eddie?" There's something here, too, that reminds me of car salesman
> lingo: "The driver's seat reclines, but her seat doesn't," "her" being
> either too noble or too lowly to warrant more explicit reference.
> Naturally, the only drivers out there are male, and "she," or "the" wife,
> is the nameless appendage across the way. Are there any articles that
> focus on the linguistic, rather than the more broadly social, side of this
> phenomenon?
>
> Peter Richardson