"the" wife

[Beverly Flanigan]

Men used to be called "the boss" or "the old man," right?  I'm not aware of
studies of this distinction though.


At 02:43 PM 10/11/99 -0700, you 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
>