subs. (colloquial).—A wife: originally my better half, i.e., the more than half of my being; said of a very close and intimate friend; especially (after Sidney) used for ‘my husband’ or ‘wife’; now, jocularly appropriated to the latter: formerly also applied to the soul, as the better part of man.
1580. SIDNEY, Arcadia III., 280. [Argalus to Parthenia, his wife.] My deare, my BETTER HALFE (sayd hee), I find I must now leaue thee.
c. 1600. SHAKESPEARE, Sonnets, xxxix., 2.
| O how thy worth with manners may I sing, | |
| When thou art all the BETTER PART of me? |
1720. SHEFFIELD (Duke of Buckingham), Wks. (1753), I., 274. My dear and BETTER HALF is out of danger.
1842. THEODORE MARTIN [in Fraser’s Magazine, Dec., p. 241, 2]. I … shall look out for a BETTER HALF.
1897. KENNARD, The Girl in the Brown Habit, ii. Between matrimony and ruin there’s mighty little to choose. Directly a man saddles himself with a BETTER-HALF, etc.
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 72. His BETTER HALF one summer day was crossing Regent Street.
