Just wondering about the connection between "wife" and "weave". Did single women do the spinning and married women do the weaving?
Or could the husband and wife be seen as twisted or woven together?

Just wondering about the connection between "wife" and "weave".

The two words are not often thought to be related etymologically.

Spinster is one of the few agentive nouns in English where the archaic suffix -ster stills refers to a female agent. There are a bunch of proper names that use this suffix: Webster (weaver), Brewster (brewer), Dempster (judge), Baxter (baker), etc. After the suffix was reanalyze to be for masculine agents, the -ess was added to some words like seamstress.

AHD4 traces them to two totally different PIE roots.

Isn't weaver the male equivalent of spinster?

"The spinster and the weaver....etc.?
I mean, there seems to be no special word for it other than bachelor.

I'm a little curious why it's not "spinstress."

I'm a little curious why it's not "spinstress."

Did you see my post up above? The Old English suffix -ster referred to female agents not masculine ones.

I misunderstood. I thought you had meant that all the words were reexamined to ensure they fit with the existing standard that -ster refers to male and -stress to female, not that the actual standard had changed. I guess it's just luck of the draw that they didn't change spinster when they changed the others?

I guess it's just luck of the draw that they didn't change spinster when they changed the others?[

Yep, pretty much like everything else in language ...

There are five dictionaries who give spinstress for spinster. I also remember having read it in books. Just like seamstress. It can be good differentiation between a spinster ( unmarried maiden )and a woman who spins.

my sister put 'bachelorette' on her marriage license application (she hates the word spinster)...well the clerk crossed it out saying it wasn't a true word or status..and HE wrote spinster.

Huh? Is this in place of, say, Unmarried on a form?

Spinster on a licence? Isn't spinster a very old fashioned word to use on official papers! Unmarried is good word on papers used both for those who are not married yet and those who have been unmarried/divorced.

Isn't spinster a very old fashioned word to use on official papers!

Bureaucrats tend to be conservative and old-fashioned and stubborn and annoying.

And, back in the day, wīf meant woman without regard to marital status.

yes...because they can.

much as Ms is today then