|
A spinster is an unmarried woman who is past the usual age for marrying and is considered unlikely to marry. An 18-year-old single woman would not be considered a spinster in contemporary language, but a single, 40-year-old woman may be considered a spinster. Several dictionaries flag it as a derogatory term. (See Current use and social stigma.) A synonymous, but more pejorative, term is Old Maid. 〔Wordreference.com〕 ==Etymology and history== The ''Online Etymological Dictionary'' says of the word origin and history:
The ''Oxford American Dictionary'' discussion of the word's etymology that "spinster" took on its meaning of a never-married woman in the early 18th century: "Origin late Middle English (in the sense 'woman who spins'): from the verb spin + -ster; in early use the term was appended to names of women to denote their occupation. The current sense dates from the early 18th century."〔 The term originally identified girls and women who spun wool, long before the Industrial Age. In medieval times, this was one of the few livelihoods available to a woman to bring in wages to contribute to the household's income or to live independently of a male wage. "Spinster" also evolved into a legal term to describe an unmarried female, commonly heard in the banns of marriage of the Church of England when the prospective bride is formally described as a "spinster of this parish". From its start as a word to describe a woman with a specific occupation, ''spinster'' came to indicate a woman or girl of marriageable age or past it who was not married and never had been married, in societies where being married was generally the first social goal for a woman. ''Merriam Webster's Dictionary'' (1913 and 1828) once defined spinster in two main senses: "1. A woman who spins, or whose occupation is to spin. 2. Law: An unmarried or single woman."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828) )〕 By the 19th century, the term evolved to include women who were so finicky that they refused to marry. During that century middle-class spinsters, as well as their married peers, took ideals of love and marriage very seriously, and ... spinsterhood was indeed often a consequence of their adherence to those ideals. ... They remained unmarried not because of individual shortcomings but because they didn't find the one "who could be all things to the heart". During that same century, one editorial in the fashion publication ''Peterson's Magazine'' encouraged women to remain choosy in selecting a mate — even at the price of never marrying. The editorial, titled "Honorable Often to Be an Old Maid," advised women: "Marry for a home! Marry to escape the ridicule of being called an old maid? How dare you, then, pervert the most sacred institution of the Almighty, by becoming the wife of a man for whom you can feel no emotions of love, or respect even?"〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「spinster」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|