spouse

From Middle English spous, spouse, from Anglo-Norman espus m, espuse f and Old French espos m, espose f and by aphesis from Latin spōnsus m (“bridegroom”), spōnsa f (“bride”), from spondeō (“I vow, pledge”), from Proto-Indo-European *spend-. Displaced native Old English ġemaca.

Related to espouse and sponsor.

• IPA^(key): /spaʊ̯s/, /spaʊ̯z/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊs, -aʊz
• Hyphenation: spouse

spouse (plural spouses)

1. A person in a marriage or marital relationship.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:spouse

   Hyponyms: husband, wife

   People should treat their spouses with respect.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 21:

     At last such grace I found, and meanes I wrought, / That I that Ladie to my spouse had wonne

spouse (third-person singular simple present spouses, present participle spousing, simple past and past participle spoused)

1. (dated) To wed; to espouse.
   • 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act III, scene II, verses 212-214:

     Do you stand possess’d
     Of any proof against the honourableness
     Of Lady Auranthe, our new-spoused daughter?

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