April research topic

Do you loathe the term widow, widower or widowhood?

If so, let’s see if we can invent some new twenty-first century terms to describe our status and ones that can be applied to people who’ve lost their partners to death, whether they be married or not.  The terms may not be acceptable in law but used often enough they can make their way into our common dictionaries and become widely acceptable.

The Collins English Dictionary describes widows, widowers
and widowhood as follows -

• A woman whose husband has died, especially one who has not remarried.
• A woman whose husband frequently leaves her alone while he indulges in a sport e.g. golf widow.
• A short line at the end of a paragraph, especially one that occurs as the top line of a page or column.
• (In some card games) an additional hand or set of cards exposed on a table.
• To cause to become a widow
• To deprive of something valued. (OE widuwe) ‘widowhood n.

(The term widow can also be applied to a lone quail that flushes after the covey rises).

Widower is described as –

• A man whose wife has died and who has not remarried.

and for widowhood -

• The state of having lost one’s spouse to death is termed ‘widowhood.’

There appear to be no synonyms for widow, widower or widowhood.

So for those of you who like a challenge, let’s have some suggestions. The terms can have their origins in the classics, be invented or conjoined words or anything else that your creative and imaginative minds can conjure up, and please tell us how you arrived at them.