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Joined: Sep 2010
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Sep 2010
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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?
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
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.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Just wondering about the connection between "wife" and "weave".
The two words are not often thought to be related etymologically. AHD4 traces them to two totally different PIE roots.
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
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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.
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Joined: Jan 2002
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
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I'm a little curious why it's not "spinstress."
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
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.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
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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?
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Joined: Aug 2005
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
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 ...
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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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.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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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.
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