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The attorney filed the case as "Martha Cline et ux vs. Springfield Toyota." I told him his Latin wasn't up to snuff and he just smiled and said, "We're here to win this case, not quibble over whether ux. means wife or the spouse of the other person." He was right and we did win the case. They actually changed the interest rate disclosure after we signed the paperwork. And they used a different typewriter!
TEd
So helpful to have stupid criminals!
oops!sorry - that's what an incomplete latin course will do to you!
That's not to say that Romans didn't say vir for husband, too, or on occasion.
He was gobsmacked when they settled out of court for five times the maximum we could have been awarded had the case proceeded to trial. Of course at the time we were unaware of the forged documents, which we found out about during discovery.
TEd
'acting like a wife' ie domestically-inclined
-acting like a husband (?)
-being submissive to a husband (or would the word 'submissive' by itself cover that base?)
When in doubt, let's go back to first principles.
It is only since the 1950's that women have enjoyed 'economic freedom', at least, 'economic freedom' of opportunity, in North America [or anywhere else in the world].
It is only since then that the concept of "women's liberation" took root anywhere in the world.
So, we should not expect to find a replacement for "uxorious" unless we look for a word which has emerged to describe the new paridigm since then.
I would argue that no such word has 'emerged'.
What this tells us, of course, is that words evolve in tandem with cultural realities, that our language is dynamic and not static.
This is where our 'prescriptionists' fail us. They are tied to what has been, every bit as much as a movie star of the silent screen who has been left behind by the 'talkies'.
Our language does not sit still, any more than our culture and our cultural values "sit still".
Obviously, we need a new word in our language to describe a woman who is married who is the equal or the superior of her mate. Not a pejorative term like "termagant", but a word which expresses our real-world modern reality.
Looking for a latin root, rooted in the past, seems an unlikely place to look for such a word, wouldn't you say?
Who are these 'prescriptionists', you say?
They are the olicarps, my friends.
Show me a "prescriptionist", and I will show you an olicarp.
They are nothing more than vivified statuary --- which flatters them, actually.
They are more like vivified monuments.
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