widower
Meaning
a man whose wife has died and who has not married again
Structure
Usage
after his wife's passing, he lived as a widower for twenty years.
the support group provides a community for widowers adjusting to life alone.
he became a widower at a relatively young age.
Etymology
The word 'widower' is a transparent English formation, created by adding the agent suffix '-er' to the existing noun 'widow'. The term 'widow' itself has a deep Indo-European lineage, stemming from the Proto-Indo-European root uidhewo-, meaning 'separated' or 'bereft'. This root passed into Proto-Germanic as widuwōn, and thence into Old English as 'widuwe', specifically denoting a bereaved woman. The masculine form 'widower' is a later, logical development in English, emerging in the 14th century to explicitly designate the male counterpart, applying the common pattern of using '-er' to denote a person characterized by a state or condition.
Analysis
- widow: from old english 'widuwe', meaning a woman whose husband has died. its functional role is the core semantic base. - er: from old english '-ere', an agent noun suffix meaning 'one who is or does something'. its functional role is to derive a noun indicating a person associated with the base word.