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Ahusbandman inEngland in theMiddle Ages and theearly modern period was a smalllandowner. Thesocial status of a husbandman was below that of ayeoman. The meaning of "husband" in this term is "master of house" rather than "married man". According to anthropologistCharles Partridge,[1] in England "Husbandman is a term denoting not rank but occupation...Knights,esquires,gentlemen and yeomen were also husbandmen if occupied inagriculture, but were never styledhusbandmen because of their right to be styled knights, etc. The agriculturist who had no right to be styled knight or esquire or gentleman, and who, not being aforty-shilling freeholder was not a yeoman, was described as husbandman."[2]
It has also been used to mean a practitioner ofanimal husbandry, or in American English, arancher.
The termhusband refers toMiddle Englishhuseband, fromOld Englishhūsbōnda, fromOld Norsehūsbōndi (hūs, "house" +bōndi,būandi, present participle ofbūa, "to dwell", so, etymologically, "a householder").[3] The origin is the verb ‘to husband’ which originally meant ‘till’ or ‘cultivate’.
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