Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1898 — Origin of the Term “Spinster." [ARTICLE]

Origin of the Term “Spinster."

There are few persons that have not looked Into the dictionary especially who know how the term “spinster” originated. We often find it in Shakspeare and other of the English classics, but It is not always used to define a spinster. This Is its specific meaning. Its general significance Is wider. There was an old practice, in the years agone, that a woman should never be married until she had spun herself a set of body, table and bed linen. It Is not difficult to see how easy the term became applicable to all unmarried women, and finally became a law term and fixed.