Outdated terms are spread far and wide across the English language. In an act of feminism and because a New York woman refused to call her new spouse “husband,” she was on the hunt to find a new word.
Audra Fitzgerald shared her thoughts in a TikTok video that detailed why she didn’t want to call her recently married longtime boyfriend her husband. She explained that the word “husband” has sexist connotations.
The word is derived from the word “house” and “occupier,” which essentially means the “master” or “controller of the house.” For the 26-year-old, this wasn’t going to fly. Fitzgerald also explained she isn’t a fan of the word “spouse” because it’s not a word she uses often and “partner” isn’t always marriage specific.
With options limited, she decided to see what other words she could find to come up with the proper label. This led her to find out what the actual male equivalent for the word “wife” is.
“Wer” — as in “werewolf” is the Old English equivalent to wife. Satisfied with her digging, Fitzgerald settled on the idea. “So I guess I’ll be calling him my ‘wer’ from now on unless anybody else has any other better ideas,” she said.
Many TikTok users were divided over the video. One person wrote: “But the meaning of words develop and change with time. I can’t see why this is an issue…”
Another brought up what most people thought: “It’s cool, but you mentioned you don’t use partner much as it sometimes requires elaboration. Would this not always require elaboration?”
While Fitzgerald should be given points for creativity, she’s most likely going to have a lot of explaining to do in the future.
Source: https://www.tiktok.com/@feminfitz/video/7130683543461596462