spinster
(ˈspɪnstə(r))
Also 4–5 spynnester(e, 5–6 spynster (6 -starre).
[f. spin v. + -ster. Cf. MDu., Du., and WFris. spinster, NFris. spen-, spanster.]
1. a. A woman (or, rarely, a man) who spins, esp. one who practises spinning as a regular occupation.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 130 And my wyf at Westmunstre þat wollene cloþ made, Spak to þe spinsters for to spinne hit softe. 14.. Lat.-Eng. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 583 Filatrix, a spynnester. 1543 Star Chamber Cases (Selden) II. 254 Ther were..ther dwelling..dyuers good spynsters & carders. 1578 Lyte Dodoens 617 Spinsters use the stemmes..to winde yarne upon. 1600 Pory tr. Leo's Africa ii. 103 Their women are excellent spinsters, whereby they are saide to gaine more then the men of the towne. 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 231 Destinies that spin the thred of life; Juvenal calls them spinsters. The distaffe bearer is Clotho, the spinster Lachesis. 1704 Hearne Duct. Hist. (1714) I. 243 This monstrous Sight..that Soldiers that bore Arms should be commanded by a Spinster. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 2 ¶7, I should be, indeed, unwilling to find that, for the sake of corresponding with the Idler, the smith's iron had cooled on the anvil, or the spinster's distaff stood unemployed. 1836 C. P. Traill Backw. Canada 47 The spinster does not sit, but walks to and fro. 1910 Contemp. Rev. July 31 She would be a famous spinster and needlewoman. |
| fig. 1609 Dekker Gull's Horn-bk. 16 Let the three huswifely spinsters of Destiny rather curtail the threed of thy life. 1698 Farquhar Love & Bottle iii. i, Are my clothes so coarse, as if they were spun by those lazy spinsters the Muses? |
b. A spider, or other insect that spins.
rare.
| 1636 Brideoake Poem (MS. Bodl. 22 fol. 10), The little Spinster's Lawne [sc. web]. 1706 J. Gardiner tr. Rapin's Gardens (1728) 197 The gnat, the buzzing drone, the Palmer⁓worm, The wily Spinster, and the creeping snail. |
2. a. Appended to names of women, originally in order to denote their occupation, but subsequently (from the 17th century) as the proper legal designation of one still unmarried.
| 1380 in T. Rogers Oxf. City Docum. (1891) 10 De Alicia Moris Spynnestere, vjd. 1496 Nottingham Rec. III. 48 Johanna Hunt,..spynster. 1545 Knaresb. Wills (Surtees) I. 49 Elizabeth Lethom, spynstarre. 1564–5 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. (1885) 27 Joan Lambe, widow of London, spynster. 1580–1 Ibid., Margaretta Tirrell spinster, alias dicta Margaretta Tirrell uxor Thome Tirrell. 1617 Minsheu Ductor, A Spinster, a terme, or an addition in our Common Law, onely added in Obligations, Euidences, and Writings, vnto maids vnmarried. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Spinster;..this is the onely addition for all unmarried women, from the Viscounts Daughter downward. 1711 Lond. Gaz. No. 4865/4 Elizabeth Harris of London, Spinster. 1719 J. Roberts Spinster 135, I write myself spinster, because the laws of my country call me so. 1773 Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. v. i, Constantia Neville, spinster, of no place at all. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxxix, Diana Vernon, Spinster. |
b. A woman still unmarried;
esp. one beyond the usual age for marriage, an old maid.
| 1719 J. Roberts Spinster 349 As for us poor Spinsters, we must certainly go away to France also. 1832 W. Irving Alhambra II. 140 The vigilant Fredegonda was one of the most wary of ancient spinsters. 1859 Thackeray Virgin. xxii, Your sweet mistress, your spotless spinster, your blank maiden just out of the school-room. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal I. vi. 183 Providence is wonderfully kind to plain little spinsters with a knack of making themselves useful. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as (sense 1, 1 b)
spinster-caterpillar,
spinster-slave; (sense 2 b)
spinster aunt,
spinster-baiting,
spinster-like adj.,
spinster sex.
| 1743 Francis tr. Horace, Odes iii. xxvii. 64 A spinster-slave, Some rude barbarian's concubine. 1800 J. Hurdis Fav. Village 169 The spinster caterpillar ties aloft, Fine as the gossamer, his slender cord. 1828 Lytton Pelham II. xii, A solitary candle, whose long, spinster-like wick was flirting away with an east wind. 1837 Dickens Pickw. vi, Tupman and the spinster aunt established a joint-stock company of fish and flattery. 1891 Meredith One of our Conq. xxiii, The little dog had qualities to entrance the spinster sex. 1938 L. MacNeice Mod. Poetry 191 Merely a piece of rather cruel spinster-baiting. |
Hence
ˈspinsterdom,
-ism,
-ship,
= spinsterhood;
spinˈsterial,
-ian,
ˈspinsterish,
-ous adjs., having the characteristics of a spinster; old-maidish;
ˈspinsterishness.
| 1879 T. H. S. Escott England I. vii. 178 Where there is enough of leisure, idleness, and *spinsterdom. 1883 Sat. Rev. 21 July 82 A single..thunder-shower may..doom maidens by the dozen to the sorrows of spinsterdom. |
| 1849 Alb. Smith Pottleton Legacy (1854) 415 His sisters..annoyed him with their *spinsterial propensities. 1874 J. Hatton Clytie xiii, The landlord's sister, a spinsterial Scotchwoman. |
| 1819 Sporting Mag. V. 60 With all the finicality of *spinsterian consequence. 1881 Graphic XXIII. 146/3 The naval, military, clerical, or spinsterian would-be-investor. |
| 1892 Academy 5 Mar. 237/3 His little *spinsterish ways at times grew rather tiresome. |
| 1913 R. West Let. June in G. N. Ray H. G. Wells & Rebecca West (1974) 23 Your *spinsterishness makes you feel that a woman desperately and hopelessly in love with a man is an indecent spectacle. 1930 R. Macaulay Staying with Relations iii. 44 The elegant spinsterishness of Claudia and Benet had turned, in Julia,..to something more sensuous. |
| 1818 La Belle Assemblée XVII. 75 The full terrors of *spinsterism took hold of all her faculties. 1874 in J. W. Howe Sex & Educ. 52 The respectable ranks of spinsterism. |
| 1899 Illustr. Lond. News 11 Mar. 328, I take the liberty of calling them maiden ladies because their style is, so to speak, *spinsterous. |
| 1816 Southey in Q. Rev. XV. 8 If the bride has an elder sister still in her state of *spinstership. |