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In Hindi, there is a phrase called "zoru ka gulaam". Translated in English as "slave of his wife". Typically the people who get this honorary title are those who seem to care for their wife more than expected. Not only care but they also never seem to question any of their wives actions. In short, they do as their wives please.

What is the word for these kind of people in English language?

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    Henpecked husband?
    – Kris
    Commented Feb 5, 2013 at 8:06
  • Is there a connotation that the man is less masculine because of this extreme devotion?
    – Kristina Lopez
    Commented Feb 5, 2013 at 8:40
  • @KristinaLopez - Yes, there is a slight implied connotation.
    – Mohit
    Commented Feb 5, 2013 at 9:13
  • @user21497 - given that there are something like 180 million Hindi speakers in the world, I don't think we need to use a the (horrible) actions of a tiny minority to evaluate an entire language, no. Uxorious carries an implication of excessive - it is inherently a submissive concept. Contrast to devoted, which is generally positive because it doesn't mean excessive.
    – Beejamin
    Commented Feb 3, 2014 at 15:23

5 Answers 5

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Consider:

  • Uxorious: having or showing a great or excessive fondness for one’s wife
  • Henpecked: henpecked husbands
  • Whipped/ pussywhipped (vulgar slang): every man who is not a complete pussy-whipped sap must hope he succeeds
  • Under the thumb: The poor guy; he squirms under the thumb of a domineering wife 1

You could also call him an overly doting husband. Such husbands are often also said to have been cowed down by their wives.

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  • 1: does not fit "slave of his wife"; 2,3: are wrt to the wife, not the man; so where's the answer?
    – Kris
    Commented Feb 5, 2013 at 8:15
  • -1 Furthermore, pussywhipped is taboo slang.
    – Kris
    Commented Feb 5, 2013 at 8:25
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    @Kris: From what I see on American TV (HBO, Cinemax, & other movie channels that rape the Asian airwaves) and the Internet, nothing is taboo anymore, especially vulgar language: It's the new "acceptable" and "idiomatic". Were you to be "whipped" by anyone who's a member of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, then you'd certainly be eligible to be called pussywhipped.
    – user21497
    Commented Feb 5, 2013 at 8:49
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    +1 for uxorious. Though it's a not a common word, it's often used in the context desired by the O.P., despite the objection of @Kris. For example: "Woodruff himself is given out as a uxorious fool: ‘The more he did for her the less she cared for him. She was a monster from head to toe.’ (from Kate Winslow's Sexual Politics, 1970) Also: "uxorious entered English by the end of the C16th to mean dotingly or submissively fond of a wife. Examples in the OED reveal a male neurotic fear of wifely domination. (Jane Mills, Womanwords: a dictionary of words about women, 1992)
    – J.R.
    Commented Feb 5, 2013 at 9:56
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    Excellent comprehensive answer with nuances. @Kris: we (the ELU community) do not welcome people using taboo words in their explanations. But on the contrary we highly welcome referring to and describing such taboo words..
    – Mitch
    Commented Feb 5, 2013 at 14:41
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I would say the English version is henpecked husband. If the wife is cheating and harassing her hubby and he likes it there is sexual fetish called cuckold or cuck for short. I believe you can say someone is cuck if he is devoid, strip of his manhood.

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  • I didn't know that interpretation of cuckold - I only knew of it as an insult to a man who has been symbolically castrated by his domineering wife.
    – Kristina Lopez
    Commented Feb 5, 2013 at 9:20
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    @Kristina: "Main Entry: cuckold // Function:noun // Inflected Form:-s // Etymology:Middle English cukeweld, cokewold /// 1 : a man whose wife is unfaithful : the husband of an adulteress" (MW3UDE)
    – user21497
    Commented Feb 5, 2013 at 9:28
  • The cuckoo lays its eggs in another bird's nest.
    – user24964
    Commented Feb 3, 2014 at 9:22
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You could use the word doormat, although it is not specific to husbands. If the context does not provide the link, you would need to say wife's doormat.

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Obsolete, but 'jerry-sneak' was an early 19th century word. OED: 'jerry-sneak n. a mean sneaking fellow, a hen-pecked husband.'

They give 1820, but it's also used by William Holland in his diary of 1800, commenting on the trial of Jane Austen's aunt, Mrs Leigh-Perrot. She had been accused of shoplifting: 'She was accused of stealing lace out of a shop in Bath, is a person of considerable fortune and has a poor Jerry Sneak of a husband who adheres to her through all difficulties.'

Not sure what else Rev. Holland expected Mr. Leigh-Perrot to do - cheer rapturously as his wife was sentenced to be transported, perhaps.

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There is a recent slang word that has been enjoying some currency: a mangina. This is a man who is incapable of standing up to women. It is a portmanteau word formed from man and vagina of course.

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