better half, my

My  spouse,  usually  referring  to  one’s  wife. The  term dates  from  the  sixteenth  century  and  originally  signified  a  close  friend  or lover. Indeed, much earlier the Roman poet Horace called his friend animae dimidium meae, describing an intimacy in which two friends are considered the halves of one whole. The Elizabethans used it for a wife (Sir Philip Sid- ney in Arcadia, 1590) or lover (Shakespeare, Sonnet 39, c. 1600). It contin- ued to be used seriously through the eighteenth century and then began to be used more in a jocular or ironic way, as it is today.