spinster

[spin-ster] /ˈspɪn stər/
noun
1.
Disparaging and Offensive. a woman still unmarried beyond the usual age of marrying.
2.
Chiefly Law. a woman who has never married.
3.
a woman whose occupation is spinning.
Origin
1325-75; Middle English spinnestere a woman who spins. See spin, -ster
Related forms
spinsterhood, noun
spinsterish, adjective
spinsterishly, adverb
spinsterlike, adjective
Usage note
The meaning “a woman beyond the usual marriageable age” is used with disparaging intent and perceived as insulting. It implies negative qualities such as being fussy or undesirable. See also old maid.
Examples from the web for spinster
  • His two elderly spinster sisters watched warily in the background.
  • The independent spinster has inspired fear rather than matrimony.
British Dictionary definitions for spinster

spinster

/ˈspɪnstə/
noun
1.
an unmarried woman regarded as being beyond the age of marriage
2.
(law) (in legal documents) a woman who has never married Compare feme sole
3.
(formerly) a woman who spins thread for her living
Derived Forms
spinsterhood, noun
spinsterish, adjective
Word Origin
C14 (in the sense: a person, esp a woman, whose occupation is spinning; C17: a woman still unmarried): from spin + -ster
Word Origin and History for spinster
n.

mid-14c., "female spinner of thread," from Middle English spinnen (see spin) + -stere, feminine suffix. Spinning commonly done by unmarried women, hence the word came to denote "an unmarried woman" in legal documents from 1600s to early 1900s, and by 1719 was being used generically for "woman still unmarried and beyond the usual age for it."

Spinster, a terme, or an addition in our Common Law, onely added in Obligations, Euidences, and Writings, vnto maids vnmarried. [John Minsheu, "Ductor in Linguas," 1617]