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Overview
spinster
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In current usage, the term carries overtones of a stereotypical woman in this situation who is regarded as prissy and repressed.
Spinster is first recorded in late Middle English in the sense of ‘a woman who spins’, and in early use it was appended to the names of women to denote their occupation. From the 17th century the word was appended to names as the official legal description of an unmarried woman (as in, spinster of this parish); the current sense dates from the early 18th century.
