breadwinner

English

Etymology

From bread +‎ winner, where to win = to earn. Compare West Frisian breawinning (“livelihood”, literally “bread-winning”), Dutch broodwinning (“livelihood”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɛdˌwɪnɚ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

breadwinner (plural breadwinners)

1. The primary income-earner in a household.
   • 1865, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Wives and Daughters, Chapter I:

     At one side lay the little town of Hollingford, into a street of which Mr. Gibson's front door opened; and delicate columns, and little puffs of smoke were already beginning to rise from many a cottage chimney where some housewife was already up, and preparing breakfast for the bread-winner of the family.

   • 2013 June 3, Brad Harrington, “Behind the Data on Breadwinner Mothers”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     The female breadwinners who are making more than their working husbands are in a whole different income bracket; their median household income is $80,000.
     The role of men is evolving even in the three-quarters of dual-parent families in which fathers are the primary breadwinners. […] Those fathers reported that being a breadwinner was less important to them than providing their children with love and emotional support, being present and involved in their child’s life, or being a good mentor and role model.

Related terms

• breadwinning
• daily bread
• put bread on the table

Translations

primary income-earner in a household

• Afrikaans: broodwinner
• Arabic: مُعِيل m (muʕīl)

  Egyptian Arabic: عائل m (ʕaʔel)

• Azerbaijani: çörəkağacı sg, çörək tapan sg
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 養家活口的人 / 养家活口的人 (zh) (yǎngjiā huókǒu de rén), 養家的人 / 养家的人 (zh) (yǎngjiā de rén)

• Danish: familieforsørger c, forsørger c
• Dutch: kostwinner (nl) m, broodwinner (nl) m
• Esperanto: panakiranto
• Finnish: perheen elättäjä
• French: gagne-pain (fr) m, pain (fr) m, soutien de famille (fr) m
• Georgian: მარჩენალი (marčenali), დამპურებელი (damṗurebeli), მკვებავი (mḳvebavi)
• German: Broterwerber m, Broterwerberin f, Geldverdiener m, Geldverdienerin f
• Hungarian: családfenntartó (hu), kenyérkereső (hu)
• Indonesian: penghasil (id)
• Ingrian: elättäjä
• Irish: saothraí m
• Japanese: 扶養者 (ふようしゃ, fuyōsha), 大黒柱 (ja) (daikokubashira), 稼ぎ手 (ja) (kasegite)
• Korean: 생업 (saeng'eop)
• Malay: periuk nasi
• Norman: gângne-pain m
• Norwegian:

  Norwegian Bokmål: familieforsørger m, forsørger m

• Persian: نان‌آور (nân-âvar)
• Polish: żywiciel rodziny m
• Portuguese: ganha-pão (pt) m
• Romanian: câștigător de pâine m, salariat (ro)
• Russian: корми́лец (ru) m (kormílec), корми́лица (ru) f (kormílica), добы́тчик (ru) m (dobýtčik)
• Scottish Gaelic: cothaiche m, fear-cosnaidh m, neach-cothachaidh m
• Sotho: mohlokomedi wa lelapa
• Spanish: cabeza de familia f
• Swedish: familjeförsörjare c