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In reply to the discussion: Holy shit... Ann Coulter is one bitter, old spinster... [View all]DFW
(60,236 posts)From the Huffington Post, no less:
WEDDINGS 05/01/2014 05:00 pm ET Updated Dec 06, 2017
Old Marriage License Reminds Us That 28 Was Once Spinsterhood
By Taryn Hillin
When you think of the term spinster, the image of a bitter, old maid comes to mind. But alas, history is here to remind us that single women of any age were at one time considered spinsters simply because they didnt have a man.
From the looks of it, the groom was considered a bachelor and the bride a spinster despite her age being a mere 28.
Slightly offended for this poor young (yes, young!) woman who was clearly in her prime, we did some digging. As it turns out, the term spinster was used on marriage licenses in England for women of any age until 2005!
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By the way, although the OP is German, and his English is excellent, I would like to point out that in Germany, the version of English that is taught in schools is almost without exception British English. When my girls were in school here in Germany, I had to actually have a conference with their English teachers to not diminish their grades for using American spellings or terms, which I had taught them from birth. In their classes, they got points taken off for not using the French spelling of "-our" words ("Honour, rumour, behaviour, etc.). The storage space in the back of a car was NOT a "trunk," but rather a "boot." It took some wrangling with their English teachers, invariably Germans who did not have a native command of English, to get them excused from being penalized for using American English. Some allowance has to be made for the possibility that the OP may not have intended to offend with the term.
As a side note, I will add that my elder daughter was so traumatized by one of her last teachers of English (as usual, a German whose English was worse than hers, and apparently felt intimidated by that), that she swore that if she ever went on to college after graduating, she would never attend another German school again (she did, and she didn't).