Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Q&A about words spinsters and weavers?
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
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.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted spinsters and weavers? catherinegordon 09/08/10 12:28 AM Re: spinsters and weavers? zmjezhd 09/08/10 01:20 AM Re: spinsters and weavers? Faldage 09/08/10 11:19 AM Re: spinsters and weavers? BranShea 09/08/10 12:08 PM Re: spinsters and weavers? TheFallibleFiend 09/08/10 01:27 PM Re: spinsters and weavers? zmjezhd 09/08/10 01:57 PM Re: spinsters and weavers? TheFallibleFiend 09/08/10 02:44 PM Re: spinsters and weavers? BranShea 09/09/10 08:18 AM Re: spinsters and weavers? zmjezhd 09/08/10 09:13 PM re spinster Candy 09/30/10 03:28 AM Re: re spinster Faldage 09/30/10 10:20 AM Re: re spinster BranShea 09/30/10 08:39 PM Re: re spinster zmjezhd 10/01/10 12:13 PM Re: re spinster Candy 10/02/10 04:25 AM Re: spinsters and weavers? Faldage 10/01/10 11:37 PM Re: spinsters and weavers? Candy 10/02/10 04:28 AM
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,343Members9,182 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 0 members (), 757 guests, and 1 robot. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 19ddrinnan 1
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,546tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,918Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org