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spinster

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spin⋅ster

  [spin-ster]
Use spinster in a Sentence
–noun
1. a woman still unmarried beyond the usual age of marrying.
2. Chiefly Law. a woman who has never married.
3. a woman whose occupation is spinning.
Origin:
1325–75; ME spinnestere a woman who spins. See spin, -ster

Related forms:
spin⋅ster⋅hood, noun
spin⋅ster⋅ish, adjective
spin⋅ster⋅ish⋅ly, adverb
spin⋅ster⋅like, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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spin·ster   (spĭn'stər)   
n.  

  1. A woman who has remained single beyond the conventional age for marrying.

  2. A single woman.

  3. A person whose occupation is spinning.


[Middle English spinnestere, female spinner of thread : spinnen, to spin; see spin + -estere, -ster, -ster.]
spin'ster·hood' n., spin'ster·ish, spin'ster·ly adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

spinster 
1362, "female spinner of thread," from M.E. spinnen (see spin) + -stere, feminine suffix. Spinning commonly done by unmarried women, hence the word came to denote "an unmarried woman" in legal documents from 1600s to early 1900s, and by 1719 was being used generically for "woman still unmarried and beyond the usual age for it."
"Spinster, a terme, or an addition in our Common Law, onely added in Obligations, Euidences, and Writings, vnto maids vnmarried." [John Minsheu, "Ductor in Linguas," 1617]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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