breadwinner means the primary income-earner in a household. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 83 out of 100.
breadwinner is pronounced /ˈbɹɛdˌwɪnɚ/.
Why “breadwinner” is a great word
BREADWINNER — [Noun] The primary income-earner in a household. From bread (a staple food, metonymically representing sustenance or money) + winner (one who gains or earns, from the sense of 'win' meaning to earn or acquire). Compare West Frisian breawinning and Dutch broodwinning. First recorded in English 1810–20. Unlike 'provider,' a general term for one who supplies needs, or 'homemaker,' which centers on domestic management, the breadwinner is a word of stark economic weight, naming a specific, solitary function. It is the worn leather of the lunch pail, the briefcase growing heavy with the afternoon, and the quiet, residual warmth of coins and crumpled bills handed over at the week's end—a role that conflates victory with sheer necessity, and makes a daily contest of survival.
noun
- The primary income-earner in a household.“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.”