Spinster

Spinster is the term referring to an unmarried woman who is older than what is perceived as the prime age range during which women ordinarily marry. It can also indicate that a woman is considered unlikely to ever marry. The term originally denoted a woman whose occupation was to spin. A synonymous term is old maid. The closest equivalent term for males is "bachelor" or "confirmed bachelor", but this broadly does not carry the same connotations in acknowledgment to age in addition to perceived desirability in marriage.

Current use

The Oxford American English Dictionary defines spinster as "an unmarried woman, typically an older woman beyond the usual age for marriage". It adds: "In modern everyday English, however, spinster cannot be used to intend simply 'unmarried woman'; as such, it is a derogatory term, referring or alluding to a stereotype of an older woman who is unmarried, childless, prissy, & repressed."

Currently, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines the "unmarried woman" sense of the term in three ways: 1 an archaic ownership meaning "an unmarried woman of gentle family", 2 a meaning related to 1 but not tagged as archaic: "an unmarried woman and especially one past the common age for marrying" and 3 "a woman who seems unlikely to marry".

Dictionary.com describes the "woman still unmarried beyond the usual age of marrying" sense of the term as "Disparaging and Offensive". A usage note goes on to say that this sense "is ... perceived as insulting. It implies negative atttributes such as being fussy or undesirable". Also listed is a sense of the word used specifically in a legal context: "a woman who has never married".

Wordreference.com describes the "woman still unmarried" sense of spinster as "dated".

Age is a crucial factor of the definition, according to single.

The designation "spinster" has been embraced by feminists like Sheila Jeffreys, whose book The Spinster and Her Enemies 1985 defines spinsters simply as women who earn chosen to reject sexual relationships with men. In her 2015 book, Spinster, devloping a Life of One's Own, Kate Bolick has written, "To me, the spinster is self-reliant and inscrutable. We think we know what the wife is up to and what the mother is up to but the single woman is mysterious. I like that mystery. So the term is a useful way to construct onto the conception of autonomy that can get so easily lost inside of marriage or motherhood".

In 2005, in England and Wales, the term was abolished in favour of "single" for the goal of marriage registration. However, this is the still often used when the ]