Soldier's Housewife

[burlington]

My wife tells me that the word 'housewife' is or was pronounced 'hussif'

Any ideas or alternatives?

[PhilB]

B:- It was called a "housewife" when I was issued with one in 1955, but I had heard it referred to as "hussif" previously. My 1921 dictionary (I keep it to look up WW1 era terms) defines housewife as, among other things, "a case for holding pins, needles and the like" and pronounced HUZZIF. Hope that helps! Phil B

[Christina Holstein]

My mother, who would have been 94 this year, always called it a HUSSIF. She was originally from Liverpool.

Christina

[Guest Pete Wood]

The word Hussif goes back to Elizabethan times, at least. Look at http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0...1049729,00.html

For pictures, and more on the 'Housewife' go to http://www.geocities.com/qllsite/Hussif.html

I can remember the difficulties my Mother had, trying to find me a 'mushroom,' as in the 1970s new recruits had to supply their own housewives.

[Muerrisch]

My ex-RAF Warrant Officer who taught me at junior school always referred to Hussif ......... he still had his and did running repairs for the boys when buttons came off or mysterious rips appeared in clothes. Mr Duffield, a gentleman and role model. Dear old Duffy!

[Dragon]

A simple etymology may help.

hus (= ‘house’) is an Old English word and I think it was pronounced ‘hoos’.

wif (= ‘wife’) is also OE and it was probably pronounced ‘weef’

The combination of the two, ‘Housewife’, first appears in written English in the 13th century in a handbook called the Ancrene Riwle. It meant a mistress in charge of a household.

This new word is in Middle English as husewif, huswyfe and huswife. [pr. hoos-weef]. This pronunciation lasts until the seventeenth century.

In the normal pattern of language development, the word and its pronunciation changed over time to give new words: hussy (16th century), which is a reduction of huswife; and hussif or huzzif (18th century), which meant a sewing case. This appears to have lingered on and is still pronounced ‘huzzeef’, although it’s now spelt ‘housewife’.

Gwyn

[trenchwalker]

we call them both in the GWS