Green’s Dictionary of Slang

one’s wife or female partner, usu. joking use; occas. of a husband/male partner; thus inferior/worse half, one’s husband.

1590		Sidney Arcadia III (1912) 427: My deare, my better halfe (said he) I finde I must now leave thee.
1611		Davies of Hereford Scourge of Folly 58: My better half’s, the better by a Lease Shee holds from you, till she (not you) decease.
1720		Sheffield (Duke of Buckingham) Works I 274: My dear and better half is out of danger [F&H].
1787		Hants. Chron. 23 Apr. 2/2: His better half [...] ventured immediately upon a second marriage.
1795		Sporting Mag. June 168/1: An action of crim. con. against a celebrated duke, for surreptitiously despoiling his better half.
1806		in N.E. Eliason Tarheel Talk 260: Left his better half.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 300: jerry [...] felt more than a little embarrassment on finding himself […] running against Marquisses and their better halves.
1828		Belfast News-Letter 30 May 4/4: Mrs Matilda Smith, the better half of an industrious city porter.
1833		‘The lottery of Wives’ in Tommarroo Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 338: They were the wives of honest men, / But not their better halves.
1833		Satirist (London) 26 May 6/3: ‘So Maria has been put to bed,’ said Lord Seagrave to the Countess’ half. ‘I hope her accouchement was speedy’.
1837		N.Y. Times 14 Jan. 2/6: Thomas Brown [...] was inflicting a pretty strong dose of strapponia on the shoulders of his better half.
1837		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 2 Dec. 40: The lady of the house related the joke [...] to her kind better half.
1839		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 3 Aug. 253/3: ‘You had not a shoe to your foot when I first knew you,’ said the old Baronet [...] to his superme [sic] half.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 17 Sept. n.p.: He will be apt to take his ‘better half’ from some of the many young ladies of that place .
1842		Wkly Rake (NY) 3 Sept. n.p.: ‘A bold stroke for a husband,’ as the woman said who caught her worser half in bed with the chambermaid .
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Dec. 2/6: According to his statement, his better half indulges in the glass rather freely [...] and, on being remonstrated with about her conduct, she hies to the police office and obtains a warrant against him.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Feb. 2/4: He declined, however, entering into any explanation on the matter [i.e. wife-beating], leaving it to his ‘bitter half’ to take what course she fancied.
1848		G.F. Ruxton Life in the Far West (1849) 118: He took unto himself another wife [...] thus equipped with both his better halves attired in all the glory of forfarraw, he went his way.
1849		Sam Sly 3 Feb. supp. 6/3: We advise Miss S—h L—k [...] not to think so much of a certain married man, or Sam will acquaint his better-half of their goings on.
1856		M. Griffith Autobiog. of a Female Slave 252: Mr. Summerville made his ‘better half’ or worse, (I know not which), understand that very important business urged his immediate return to the city.
1858		‘Shadow’ Midnight Scenes 52: ‘Well, really, there is no use coming out with you,’ impatiently vociferates his better half.
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: The domestic hearth of ‘Our Doctor’ is cheered with a better half, who is the sharer of his joys.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 155/2: Should we go and at once ‘fence’ what ‘yacks’ we had pinched or make for the home where we had left our better halves.
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 147: About once in every hour upon slight provocation [he] would rise from his seat and pitch into his better half.
1881		N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 29 Jan. 195/2: He had been smoking in the parlour and spoilt the new lace curtains his better half had just put up.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 6/4: For our part, we don’t want to be a model husband if the ‘bitter half’ is made after the Ball pattern. [Ibid.] 28 Feb. 13/1: Hell has no terrors for the man who has to sing the children to sleep in the nursery, or put ‘shine’ on the boots in the kitchen while his better three-quarters entertains her distinguished guests in the parlour.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 138: While this was going on the lady was giving her better half a piece of her mind.
1890		Sporting Times 1 Mar. 1/4: There had been ructions at Pitcher’s, and separate apartments occupied, and ‘cold shoulder’ didn’t convey an expression even of the hearty welcome accorded by Dora to callers on her inferior half.
1891		F. Remington letter in Splete (1988) 117: My better half is very sick.
1894		Mirror of Life 26 May 11/3: Several wives appeared before the magistrate to lodge complaints against their worse halves.
1899		A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 106: Joseph’s baritone better half was siting on the chair with a plate of beans and kugel in her lap.
1900		Marvel 8 Dec. 3: He played a very second fiddle when his better half was about.
1900		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 6 Oct. 3/2: He overtook his better half, whipped her and took her home.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 89: A certain Mrs. A. had a Way of reading the Riot Act to the Other Half of the Domestic Sketch.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 7 Feb. 8/2: Fatjohn’s best half arrived in Melbourne on the same train with Lady Northcote and had a bigger reception than the newcomer.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 22 Jan. 4/7: His wife knocked at the bathroom door and her worse half promptly said, ‘Come in’.
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Barter’ Sporting Times 1 Feb. 1/3: Although a thousand quid might well tempt any married party / To hand over to another her worse half, / Where’s the addle-pated female, so soft-headed and soft-hearty / As to make so rash an offer, e’en in chaff?
1908		C. Tomalin Venturesome Tom 105: Without more ado she picked him up, rolled him in her apron, and stalked from the room [...] thus conveying home her better half.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘Half A Man’ in Chisholm (1951) 105: ’E starts to larf. / ‘Some day,’ ’e sez, ‘she’ll be the better ’arf.’.
1922		John O’London’s Weekly 7 Jan. 448/3: You married men may have better halves, but we bachelors have better quarters.
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 13: Ain’t one of them dumbbells game enough to be the goat and take Kate for their bitter half.
1935		Archie Seale Man About Harlem 7 Dec. [synd. col.] Where your bosom friend refers to your better-half as the old lady.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 21: You know, when people call your wife your ‘better half’ there’s something in it.
1942		E. Cross Tailor and Ansty 13: She is his wife, or, as he refers to her, ‘his bitter half, his misfortune’.
1947		S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 226: Any failure now on the part of your ‘better half’ to earn a living will, as hitherto, be compensated for by the charity handed out by your [...] Papa.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 180: Inducing L.G. Trotter to throw off the yoke and defy his considerably better half.
1962		(con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 179: You could be really truly my better half.
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 66: Me the other half of nothing.
1985		B. Robinson Aussie Bull 14: The ‘better half’ or ‘little woman’ [...] usually gets ‘in the family way’ after Nature has run its course.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 103: While a man might assess a problem cerebrally, his ‘other half’ will be guided [...] by the deep and mysterious processes of her hormones.
1989		M. Walker How to Kiss a Crocodile 99: [T]hey broke into a teasing banter again and began discussing their other halves.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 138: Slumped behind a Hollywood Reporter, trying not to stare at my ‘better half’.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Travel 11 July 9: She and her embarrassed other half took to staying in bed until past midday.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 268: I’d do my shows, have dinner with my better half, and go back.