夫妻为何叫Man and Wife？

夫妻为何叫Man and Wife？

   常在西方生活片中看到这样的情景，在教堂举行婚礼，男女宣誓后，牧师总会说一句：“I now pronounce you man and wife”(现在我宣布你两成为夫妻)。懂点英语的人都知道，丈夫是husband,妻子是wife, 为什麽牧师不说husband and wife 或者说 man and woman, 硬要说成man and wife?

  原来，早在17世纪初诺曼底人征服英格兰时，婚礼就使用man and wife了。当时man就是\"丈夫\"的意思，反而是husband才表示“耕田或做生意的男人”，这也是为什麽在大一点的字典中，husband仍保留有“节俭地使用或经营”的释义。

  有趣，千年轮回，man和husband的词义居然互换了。然而，基督教的婚姻习俗仍然没有多大变化，man and wife的说法就在教堂保留至今。我想，除非那段经典的、格式固定的宣誓词“To love and honor……in sickness and in health……for richer，for poorer……for better，for worse……till death do us part”发生变化，否则，man and wife就还会继续使用下去。喔，对了，till death do us part可要好好记住，因为我们经常要在MMs面前海誓山盟的啊，它表达的就是“至死不渝”的意思（只至死亡才把我们分开）。

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“To love and honor……in sickness and in health……for richer，for poorer……for better，for worse……till death do us part”

  真是精久不衰的爱情誓词！！！

  难怪……难怪《四婚一葬》中那位如此可爱又如此憋脚的牧师，从他嘴里说出的话，听来也是感人啊：P

Take out my pen and put it down!（steven,could you tell me the entire sentance?)

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  牧师原文：

  Joeblack, do you take this woman, xx, to be your lawful wedded wife, to live together in the estate of matrimony? Will you love her, honor her, comfort her and keep her in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, be true to her as long as you both shall live?”

  新郎（新娘）的誓言（牧师念一句，跟着念一句）：

  I, Joeblack, take you, XX, as my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.

  嬉嘻，因为自己想在教堂结婚，所以把这段话背下来了，丧礼还没有想那麽远。过几天我去找找那本《四个婚礼一个葬礼》的碟子，把那段葬礼的对白听写下来给你。

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  其实，现在有些美国人愿意结婚时用一份法律合同而不是传统誓约来规定双方的义务和期望。摘录一份由律师起草、欲婚夫妇签字的法律合同：

We want to declare that:

1) We intend to marry each other in the near future.

2) We want to make clear the conditions for our future marriage.

3) The conditions in the contract will refer to our respective marital rights, and our obligations to each other and any children we may have.

The conditons we want to agree to and sign are:

1) Mary will keep her own last name after we are married.

2) We shall continue our separate careers and help each other in them.

3) We shall decide together where to live.

4) We shall respect each other's private property, and regard anything bought jointly after we are married as joint property.

5)We shall have separate bank accounts, but both contribute(depending on our income) to the payment of bills for food, rent etc.

……

10）If we have a disagreement that we cannot resolve，we agree to go to a third person （a marriage counsellor，clergyman etc）

　　　　

  《世博英语》