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Dear ewein: This is a dandy question. I have seen the word used several times, and know what it means.
My usual etymology sites do not have it. I'll have fun trying to find it.
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I always liked frump and frumpy...it's one of those words I just enjoy saying.  This is from Bartleby/American heritage: frump
PRONUNCIATION: frmp
NOUN: 1. A girl or woman regarded as dull, plain, or unfashionable. 2. A person regarded as colorless and primly sedate.
ETYMOLOGY: Possibly short for Middle English frumple, wrinkle, from Middle Dutch verrompelen, to wrinkle : ver-, completely; see per1 in Appendix I + rompelen, to wrinkle.
OTHER FORMS: frumpi·ly —ADVERB
frumpi·ness —NOUN
frumpy —ADJECTIVE
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old hand
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For some reason this thread has left me thinking about the old limerick (by Ogden Nash?) that goes,
There was a young lady from Natchez
whose clothes were in tatters and tatches
When asked of her plight,
she replied with delight,
"Sir, when I itches, I scratchez!"
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A perfect piece of Nash, Geoff! Thanks! Then of course, there's also spinster and dowager. But why do single older women seem to have several nomenclatures when single men of any age are simply relegated to bachelor or confirmed bachelor? Remember the TV sitcom (US) in the 50's, Bachelor Father, starring John Forsythe, about a single father and his two daughters? It seems that people who never married, or who remained unmarried, especially women, were stigmitized to a degree by society up until the late 20th century...thus words like spinster imply a note of disparagement, such as in the phrase you old spinster. And bachelor was a "polite" way of saying a man was single. I remember these attitudes still being prevalent when I was a young child.
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It was a hard fight, but I won:
blowsy: from Anglo-Saxon blyscan, bliscan, to blush, shine; blowsy
(or blowzy) connotes both ruddy, fat and flushed,
coarse-complexioned, as well as unkempt, slatternly, disheveled.
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biddy is a great word, a mocking yet affectionate term for old woman. i did hear it came from from a scandinavian term for walking corpse ( not so affectionate that) but this may be one of those urban myths you wordies keep debunking for me.
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why do single older women seem to have several nomenclatures when single men of any age are simply relegated to bachelor or confirmed bachelor?Because, in a patriarchal society (is that a feminist oxymoron?) LOSER sounds really tacky! 
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Dear dodyskin: I got this from www.word-detective.com :
"Biddy" is actually a very interesting word because it has two separate origins, both fairly well-documented, which is unusual for a slang term. The primary meaning of "biddy" is "chicken," and it first appeared in the early 17th century. The word probably came from the nonsense syllables used to call chickens -- something like "here biddybiddybiddy," I suppose. By the late 18th century "biddy" had been adopted as a derogatory slang term for women, much in the same unfortunate way that "chick" was in the 1960's.
However, "biddy" in this sense might have died a welcome death had it not been for the influx of Irish immigrants into the U.S. in the early 19th century. Young Irish women often had their passage paid by upper-class American families, for whom they would then work as domestic servants while they paid off their debt. The practice was so widespread that such women came to be known as "Biddies," from a shortening of "Bridget," a common Irish women's name. This use of "biddie" reinvigorated theword, and ever since it has been employed by insolent children to torment their elders.
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The primary meaning of "biddy" is "chicken,
I wonder why we sometimes still hear of a rooster called a Chanticleer, but never hear of a hen called a Pertilote, yet both eminate from the same ancient tale.
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