See better half in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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First written instance of it meaning “spouse” was in 1580 by Sir Philip Sidney.", "forms": [ { "form": "better halves", "tags": [ "plural" ] } ], "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "better halves" }, "expansion": "better half (plural better halves)", "name": "en-noun" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "noun", "senses": [ { "categories": [ { "_dis": "56 44", "kind": "other", "name": "English entries with incorrect language header", "parents": [ "Entries with incorrect language header", "Entry maintenance" ], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "84 16", "kind": "other", "name": "Entries with translation boxes", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "80 20", "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with 1 entry", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "91 9", "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with entries", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "81 19", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Czech translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "90 10", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Danish translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "89 11", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Dutch translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "82 18", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Finnish translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "89 11", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with French translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "88 12", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with German translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "77 23", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Hungarian translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "81 19", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "81 19", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Polish translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "83 17", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Portuguese translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "91 9", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Russian translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "93 7", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Spanish translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "83 17", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Swedish translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "82 18", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Thai translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "89 11", "kind": "other", "name": "Terms with Urdu translations", "parents": [], "source": "w+disamb" }, { "_dis": "90 10", "kind": "topical", "langcode": "en", "name": "Family members", "orig": "en:Family members", "parents": [ "Family", "People", "Human", "All topics", "Fundamental" ], "source": "w+disamb" } ], "examples": [ { "ref": "1580, Philip Sidney, “Book III”, in The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, page 357:", "text": "But with that Argalus came out of his swoon, […], it seemed a little cheerful blood came up to his cheeks, like a burning coal, almost dead, if some breath a little revive it: and forcing up, the best he could, his feeble voice, “My dear, my better half,” said he, “I find I must now leave thee: and by that sweet hand, and fair eyes of thine I swear that death brings nothing with it to grieve me but that I must leave thee, […]", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by The Wolf (Harvey Keitel):", "text": "Quickly gentlemen, we got about fifteen minutes before Jimmie's better-half comes pulling into the driveway.", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2002, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, “Interview”, in The Office, season 2, episode 6 (television production), spoken by Helena (Olivia Colman):", "text": "Private life then, just to flesh out David Brent the man. Is there a better half?", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "A person's spouse or lover, most commonly a man's wife." ], "id": "en-better_half-en-noun-ez2lHlEN", "links": [ [ "spouse", "spouse" ], [ "lover", "lover" ], [ "wife", "wife" ] ], "synonyms": [ { "word": "spouse" } ], "translations": [ { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "cs", "lang": "Czech", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "lepší polovička" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "da", "lang": "Danish", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "common-gender" ], "word": "bedre halvdel" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "nl", "lang": "Dutch", "sense": "spouse or lover", "word": "betere helft" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "fi", "lang": "Finnish", "sense": "spouse or lover", "word": "parempi puolisko" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "fr", "lang": "French", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "douce moitié" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "fr", "lang": "French", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "meilleure moitié" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "fr", "lang": "French", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "moitié" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "de", "lang": "German", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "bessere Hälfte" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "hu", "lang": "Hungarian", "sense": "spouse or lover", "word": "jobbik fél" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "nb", "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "bedre halvdel" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "pl", "lang": "Polish", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "lepsza połowa" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "pt", "lang": "Portuguese", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "cara-metade" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "pt", "lang": "Portuguese", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "metade" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "ru", "lang": "Russian", "roman": "dražájšaja polovína", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "дража́йшая полови́на" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "ru", "lang": "Russian", "roman": "polovína", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "полови́на" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "es", "lang": "Spanish", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "media naranja" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "sv", "lang": "Swedish", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "common-gender" ], "word": "bättre hälft" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "th", "lang": "Thai", "roman": "pan-yaa", "sense": "spouse or lover", "word": "ภรรยา" }, { "_dis1": "95 5", "code": "ur", "lang": "Urdu", "roman": "śarīk-i safr", "sense": "spouse or lover", "word": "شَرِیکِ سَفْر" } ] }, { "categories": [], "glosses": [ "A very close friend or companion." ], "id": "en-better_half-en-noun-1svYi798", "links": [ [ "friend", "friend" ], [ "companion", "companion" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(archaic) A very close friend or companion." ], "tags": [ "archaic" ] } ], "sounds": [ { "audio": "en-au-better half.ogg", "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/de/En-au-better_half.ogg/En-au-better_half.ogg.mp3", "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/En-au-better_half.ogg" } ], "wikipedia": [ "Horace", "Philip Sidney", "Virgil" ], "word": "better half" }
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First written instance of it meaning “spouse” was in 1580 by Sir Philip Sidney.", "forms": [ { "form": "better halves", "tags": [ "plural" ] } ], "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "better halves" }, "expansion": "better half (plural better halves)", "name": "en-noun" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "noun", "senses": [ { "categories": [ "English terms with quotations" ], "examples": [ { "ref": "1580, Philip Sidney, “Book III”, in The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, page 357:", "text": "But with that Argalus came out of his swoon, […], it seemed a little cheerful blood came up to his cheeks, like a burning coal, almost dead, if some breath a little revive it: and forcing up, the best he could, his feeble voice, “My dear, my better half,” said he, “I find I must now leave thee: and by that sweet hand, and fair eyes of thine I swear that death brings nothing with it to grieve me but that I must leave thee, […]", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by The Wolf (Harvey Keitel):", "text": "Quickly gentlemen, we got about fifteen minutes before Jimmie's better-half comes pulling into the driveway.", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2002, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, “Interview”, in The Office, season 2, episode 6 (television production), spoken by Helena (Olivia Colman):", "text": "Private life then, just to flesh out David Brent the man. Is there a better half?", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "A person's spouse or lover, most commonly a man's wife." ], "links": [ [ "spouse", "spouse" ], [ "lover", "lover" ], [ "wife", "wife" ] ], "synonyms": [ { "word": "spouse" } ] }, { "categories": [ "English terms with archaic senses" ], "glosses": [ "A very close friend or companion." ], "links": [ [ "friend", "friend" ], [ "companion", "companion" ] ], "raw_glosses": [ "(archaic) A very close friend or companion." ], "tags": [ "archaic" ] } ], "sounds": [ { "audio": "en-au-better half.ogg", "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/de/En-au-better_half.ogg/En-au-better_half.ogg.mp3", "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/En-au-better_half.ogg" } ], "translations": [ { "code": "cs", "lang": "Czech", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "lepší polovička" }, { "code": "da", "lang": "Danish", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "common-gender" ], "word": "bedre halvdel" }, { "code": "nl", "lang": "Dutch", "sense": "spouse or lover", "word": "betere helft" }, { "code": "fi", "lang": "Finnish", "sense": "spouse or lover", "word": "parempi puolisko" }, { "code": "fr", "lang": "French", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "douce moitié" }, { "code": "fr", "lang": "French", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "meilleure moitié" }, { "code": "fr", "lang": "French", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "moitié" }, { "code": "de", "lang": "German", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "bessere Hälfte" }, { "code": "hu", "lang": "Hungarian", "sense": "spouse or lover", "word": "jobbik fél" }, { "code": "nb", "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "masculine" ], "word": "bedre halvdel" }, { "code": "pl", "lang": "Polish", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "lepsza połowa" }, { "code": "pt", "lang": "Portuguese", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "cara-metade" }, { "code": "pt", "lang": "Portuguese", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "metade" }, { "code": "ru", "lang": "Russian", "roman": "dražájšaja polovína", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "дража́йшая полови́на" }, { "code": "ru", "lang": "Russian", "roman": "polovína", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "полови́на" }, { "code": "es", "lang": "Spanish", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "feminine" ], "word": "media naranja" }, { "code": "sv", "lang": "Swedish", "sense": "spouse or lover", "tags": [ "common-gender" ], "word": "bättre hälft" }, { "code": "th", "lang": "Thai", "roman": "pan-yaa", "sense": "spouse or lover", "word": "ภรรยา" }, { "code": "ur", "lang": "Urdu", "roman": "śarīk-i safr", "sense": "spouse or lover", "word": "شَرِیکِ سَفْر" } ], "wikipedia": [ "Horace", "Philip Sidney", "Virgil" ], "word": "better half" }
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-31 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (bcd5c38 and 9dbd323). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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