Wiktionary

widow

English

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Etymology

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Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁
Proto-Indo-European *dwi-
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂
Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ
Proto-West Germanic *widuwā
Old English widuwe
Middle English widwe
English widow
    PIE word
    *dwóh₁

    From Middle English widow, from Old English widuwe (“widow”), from Proto-West Germanic *widuwā (“widow”), from Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ (“widow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂ (“widow”), possibly from *h₁weydʰh₁-, *widʰ- (“to separate, split, cleave, divide”), whence also wood from Old English widu, wudu.

    Cognates

    Cognate with Scots weedae, wedow, widdow (“widow”), Cimbrian bittaba (“widow”), Dutch weduwe, weeuw (“widow”), German Witwe (“widow”), Vilamovian wytwa (“widow”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐍉 (widuwō, “widow”), Old Irish fedb (“widow”), Welsh gweddw (“widow”), Asturian and Spanish viuda (“widow”), Aragonese and Latin vidua (“widow”), Catalan vídua (“widow”), French veuve (“widow”), Galician and Portuguese viúva (“widow”), Italian vedova (“widow”), Romanian văduvă (“widow”), Ancient Greek ἠΐθεος (ēḯtheos, “bachelor”), Albanian ve (“widow, widower”), Belarusian удава́ (udavá, “widow”), Czech, Slovak, and Slovene vdova (“widow”), Polish gdowa, wdowa (“widow”), Russian and Ukrainian вдова́ (vdová, “widow”), Serbo-Croatian udova, у̀дова (“widow”), Central Kurdish بێوە (bêwe, “widow”), Ossetian идӕдз (idæʒ, “widowed”), Persian بیوه (bive, bêva, “widow”), Sanskrit विधवा (vidhavā, “widow”).

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    widow (plural widows)

    English Wikipedia has an article on:
    Wikipedia
     
    A widow spider (noun sense 4)
    1. A person whose spouse is absent:
      1. A person who has lost a spouse and hasn't remarried:
        2. A woman whose spouse (traditionally husband) has died (and who has not remarried); a woman in relation to her late spouse; feminine of widower.
        3. (uncommon) Any person whose spouse has died (and who has not remarried).
      2. (by extension, informal, often humorous or sarcastic, in combination) A woman whose husband is often away pursuing a hobby, career, etc.
        My aunt is a football widow in the fall and a basketball widow in the winter and early spring.
        • 1988 November 27, Emily Parry, “For a Bowling Widow, a Split Isn't Just Two Lonely Pins”, in New York Times:
          I had been feeling like a bowling-alley widow, but knew he loved the game, so I suggested we join a mixed league.
        • 2010, Theodore Dalrymple, “There’s No Damned Merit In It”, in Life at the Bottom, published 1997:
          And how many betting widows do I see at the hospital, who hardly see their husbands while the betting shops are open!
    2. (card games) An additional hand of playing cards dealt face-down in some card games, to be used by the highest bidder.
      Synonym: kitty
    3. (typography) A single line of type that ends a paragraph but is separated from it by being carried over to the next page or column.
      Antonym: orphan
      Hyponym: runt
    5. Any venomous spider of the genus Latrodectus (called "widows" because of the practice of sexual cannibalism observed among many of these species).

    Synonyms

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    • (woman whose spouse has died): widowess
    • (man whose spouse has died): widower

    Derived terms

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    Translations

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    single line of type carried over to the next page
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked

    Verb

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    widow (third-person singular simple present widows, present participle widowing, simple past and past participle widowed)

    1. (transitive) To make a widow or widower of someone; to cause the death of the spouse of.
    2. (transitive, figurative) To strip of anything valued.
      • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto IX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
        Sleep, gentle winds, as he sleeps now,
        My friend, the brother of my love.
        My Arthur! whom I shall not see
        ⁠Till all my widow’d race be run;
        ⁠Dear as the mother to the son,
        More than my brothers are to me.
    3. (transitive, obsolete) To endow with a widow's right.
    4. (transitive, obsolete) To be widow to.

    Translations

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