Husbandmen

A husbandman in England in the medieval and early modern period was a free tenant farmer or small landowner. The social status of a husbandman was below that of a yeoman. The meaning of "husband" in this term is "master of house" rather than "married man".

It has also been used to mean a practitioner of animal husbandry, or in perhaps more modern language, a rancher.

The term husband refers to Middle English huseband, from Old English hūsbōnda, from Old Norse hūsbōndi (hūs, "house" + bōndi, būandi, present participle of būa, "to dwell", so, etymologically, "a householder").

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