2021-03-27 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด W – widow & widower

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2021-03-27

ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด W – widow & widower

แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น

ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค

Dictionary.com

ออกเสียง widow = ‘WID-oh’

ออกเสียง widower = ‘WID-oh-er’

Dictionary.com

Words Matter: When A Wife Becomes A Widow

TRANSCRIPT

“You lose your keys, you don’t lose a person who’s the whole world to you.”

This is Karn, and 20 years ago her husband was killed in a traffic accident. As a newlywed, she was a wife … and then he died

and she wasn’t a wife anymore, or was she?

She was a widow—not single, not divorced, not married.

When it comes to emotional situations and unexpectedevents,

words matter.

Watch Karn’s story to see how her words help others

who are embarking on the journey of widowhoodfeel less alone.

Karn’s words matter:

devastation, partner, widow, hope,

pressure, death, taboo, memories, complicated, love

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

‘Weeds' in 'Widow's Weeds'

Weeds in the term widow's weeds means "clothing" or "apparel."

It's from the Old English word wǣd, which

in Middle English became wede.

This weed is not connected with the "unwanted plant"

meaning of weed, which originates from Old English and Middle English wēod.

The "garment" sense of weed has been rarely used since the 19th century, and even then it occurred mostly in literary contexts.

Weed could also once mean "armor" or "mail,"

but by the time Sir Walter Scott used it that way

in The Bridal of Triermain in 1813, it was already rare.

In the past, weeds or weed was often used with

a qualifying termto refer to a uniform or the distinctive garb

of a particular profession or state in life.

Some examplesare "doctor’s weed," "shepherd's weeds,"

and "monastic weeds."

16th-century English poet Edmund Spenser

also wrote of "A goodly lady clad in hunter's weed."

Widow's weeds,too,

referred at one timeto something of a uniform,

back when custom mandated

a somewhat unvarying dress be worn by widows:

a black gownwith broad white cuffs and, in public, a crepe veil.

Eventually, widow's weeds became the only prevalent application

of the increasingly rare weeds.

In today's contexts, of course,

the picturesque employment of widow's weeds

refers simply to the black or dark-colored clothing

a woman might wear at her spouse's funeral

and in public for a period afterwards.

In addition, it is not uncommon to see a writer

using the termin non-mourning contexts,

as demonstrated by

The New Yorker's Janet Malcom in a September 2016 piece:

Martha Argerich's widow's-weeds black gowns heighten the beauty and mystery of her playing. Plainness is never a mistake on a concert stage.

Such creative use breathes new life into widow's weeds

and brings to mind, if only transiently, the all but forgotten weeds, as well.

Collins COBUILD English Usage

Widow & widower

1. 'widow'

You say that a woman is a widow

when her husband has died and she has not married again.

I had been a widow for five years.

When a man has died, you can refer to his wife as his widow.

His property had been left to his widow.

He visited the widow of an old school friend.

2. 'widower'

You say that a man is a widower

when his wife has died and he has not married again.

He's a widower in his late forties.

When a woman has died,

you can refer to her husband as her widower.

Ten years later her widower remarried.

The ceremony was attended by the widower of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carol Shields.

Dictionary of Problem Words and expression

Widow & widower

The primary meaning of widow is that

of a woman whose husband has died and who has not remarried.

Widower is the male counterpart of widow.

A ”grass widow” is separatedor divorced

or lives apart from her husband.

(The expression comes from the meaning

of “at grass,” that is “roaming loose.”)

A “golf widow”(“tennis widow,”  “fishing widow”

is a woman whose husband leaves her

while he goes to play his favorite game.

“Widow woman” is an illiteracy.