DH
Also called dh, dear husband, darling husband
DH stands for dear husband or darling husband, the way parents online mention their husband without using his name. The dear can be fond or dry, and the post shows which.
How it's said
Do you interpret threads differently if someone says DP rather than DH?
No, but then DP and I have just got married (making him my DH now)...
My DH did more than half the night feeds with all of ours.
Who says it
Not to be confused with
- DP stands for dear partner. Posters often write DP before marriage and DH after, and some readers wonder whether the choice changes how a thread reads.
- OH means other half, a partner of any kind, with no dear in front.
Where it came from
It's one of the family acronyms of parenting forums, listed beside DS, DD and DP. The Oxford Dictionary of English dates DH to the 1990s, and it was already part of online life in the days of America Online.
One writer on forum language called it a cheeky reference rather than a time saver, and others note the dear can be sarcastic. An analysis of about 50 million posts on one parenting forum found almost five percent were about DH, with over 270,000 uses of dh against 48 of dear husband written out.