Green Widow

[kumarawin]

If a married woman living alone is called "Green widow", what is a married man living alone called ?

 

[MikeNewYork]

If a married woman living alone is called "Green widow", what is a married man living alone called ?

Happy?

 

[emsr2d2]

I've never heard of a "green widow". Sometimes a married woman whose husband spends a lot of time out of the house playing sport is called a "golf widow". It's possible that, for example, a man whose wife spends a lot of time playing bingo at the local bingo hall might be a "bingo widower". It's not a standard term though.

 

[Tdol]

I've never heard of a "green widow".

I have come across it before.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm not entirely sure I can work out why those words are used. The woman is married yet she lives on her own. Presumably, she and her husband have decided to live in separate homes (for any number of reasons). Does it refer to happily married women who choose not to cohabit? Does it refer to a separated woman who is legally still married but is, in effect, single?

 

[bhaisahab]

I have never come across "green widow" but I have heard "grass widow" used with the same meaning.

 

[kumarawin]

Yes, it was my wrong. The term is "grass widow" and not "green widow". But what is the male version of this term. I remember to have read somewhere terms like " blue bachelor" or "blue widower" or something to that effect. But, now, I can't recollect the exact term. If anyone can enlighten.

 

[Rover_KE]

Yes, it was my mistake. The term is "grass widow" and not "green widow". But what is the male version of this term?

Plenty of dictionaries say it's grass widower. (Click on the underlined link and bookmark the OneLook site for future reference.)

 

[Tdol]

I have never come across "green widow" but I have heard "grass widow" used with the same meaning.

Ahh- that's the one.

 

[SoothingDave]

I've never seen this term used.

 

[emsr2d2]

Neither have I, and I'm still interested to know if anyone knows the origin. I completely understand how the terms "golf widow" and "football widow" came about but what on earth does grass have to do with people who spend lots of time without their spouse present?

 

[Rover_KE]

grass widown.1. A woman who is divorced or separated from her husband. 2. A woman whose husband is temporarily absent. 3. An abandoned mistress. 4. The mother of a child born out of wedlock. [Perhaps in allusion to a bed of grass or hay.] Word History: The term grass widow cries out for explanation of what grass means and how grass widow came to have its varied though related senses. Grass probably refers to a bed of grass or hay as opposed to a real bed. This association would help explain the earliest recorded sense of the word (1528), "an unmarried woman who has lived with one or more men," as well as the related senses "an abandoned mistress" and "the mother of an illegitimate child." Later on, after the sense of grass had been obscured, people may have interpreted grass as equivalent to the figurative use of pasture, as in out to pasture. Hence grass widow could have developed the senses "a divorced or separated wife" or "a wife whose husband is temporarily absent."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.