different between marrying vs spinster

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, NYC) IPA^(key): /?mæ?i??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m??i??/
• Hyphenation: mar?ry?ing

Verb

marrying

1. present participle of marry

Noun

marrying (plural marryings)

1. A marriage.
   • 2003, Diana Wynne Jones, The Crown of Dalemark (page 116)

     After that there were marryings and intermarryings, the way there are, and Kredindale gets related to half the earls of the North.

English

Etymology

From Middle English spynnester (“woman who spins fibre”), from c. 1350; equivalent to spin +? -ster. The semantic development is from a historical notion of unmarried women spinning thread for a living.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sp?nst?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?sp?nst?/

Noun

spinster (plural spinsters)

1. (sometimes derogatory) A woman who has never been married, especially one past the typical marrying age according to social traditions.

   Synonym: old maid

   • 1628, Edward Coke, Institutes of the Lawes of England

     If […] a woman be named spinster, she may abate […] the same [writ].

2. One who spins (puts a spin on) a political media story so as to give something a favorable or advantageous appearance; a spin doctor, spin merchant or spin master.
3. (obsolete) Someone whose occupation was spinning thread.
   • c. 1601, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act II, scene IV:

     The spinsters and the knitters in the sun.

4. (obsolete) A woman of evil life and character; so called from being forced to spin in a house of correction.
5. (rare, dialectal) A spider; an insect (such as a silkworm) which spins thread.

Translations

See also

• bachelor
• bachelorette
• widow
• divorcee
• thornback

Further reading

• spinster on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Prentiss, prestins

Dutch

Etymology

From spinnen (“to spin”) +? -ster

Pronunciation

Noun

spinster f (plural spinsters, diminutive spinstertje n)

1. a female spinner