Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 150, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1904 — Original Meaning of “Spinster." [ARTICLE]

Original Meaning of “Spinster."

“Spinster is the term that the law applies to the woman who is unmarried. The origin of the word dates, back to the days when spinning was not done by machinery, but by hand. At that time every girl learned to spin as a matter of course, the same t.s'sho now learns to spell. She was obliged to spin a couple of hours each day, and what she produced belonged to her.Thus every girl by the time she came to get man-led, owned a great quantity of linen of her own make that sh» brought, as a kind of dower, to her, husband. Every girl's leisure, up ttl-v most to her wedding day, was devoted' to the spinning of linen for use in that household of her spouse. Therefore every unmarried girl was called a' spinster.