July 25, 2014　=========
☆ widower　　男やもめ
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Yesterday’s word described the woman whose husband has died. Today’s word describes the man whose wife has died and he has not remarried. When the husband dies, we say “his widow”, for example:
That is Sue, she is his widow. (assuming that it is clear who “his” is.)
That is Sue, she is David’s widow. (assuming that everyone knows David, and it’s a friendly, informal situation.)
That is Sue, she is Mr. Smith’s widow. (as above, but a more formal situation.)
However, my dictionary says that we don’t say, “her widower” in the case that the wife dies first. So, we would NOT say the following:
That is Tom, he is her widower.
That is Tom, he is Jane’s widower.
That is Tom, he is Mrs. Brown’s widower.
So I was wondering “why” we don’t say “her widower”, do you know what I found? Well, it turns out that the words “widow” and “widower” were first used many years ago, when people thought that women “belonged” to men, so there was no need to use the term “her widower”. Seems strange that my up-to-date dictionary STILL has this old language in it! I wonder why widow and widower still exist – seems sexist, right? Like actor/actress and waitress/waiter. These kinds of words have changed, so why not widow and widower? How about in Japan, is there one word to describe both men and women?
Bye,
Chris