Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

grass widow

/ˈɡɹɑːs ˌwɪdəʊ/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.90 in modern English

Syllables
grass wid-ow
IPA
/ˈɡɹɑːs ˌwɪdəʊ/
18
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A married woman whose spouse is away.

noun

An unmarried woman who has had premarital sexual relations; a former mistress.

Obsolete

Example Sentences

Etymology

The word appears in the Germanic languages in different forms and senses, evidently being ancient, but the oldest (both 16th century) are English grasse wydowe and Middle Low German grasswēdewe, both meaning “girl who has lost her virginity, harlot”. Therefore “grass” in all likelihood refers to a bedding for premarital sex. Compare the expression green gown (“loss of virginity”). The girl became a “widow” in the sense that she was neither married nor a virgin. The sense then developed through “married woman who has relations in her husband’s absence” to the contemporary, softened meaning. Compare Dutch grasweduwe, Swedish gräsänka, German Strohwitwe. Etymonline cites the book Vocabulary of East Anglia (1830) by Rev. Robert Forby, which records the term in that region as essentially referring to a woman abandoned after an informal marriage.

Regional Pronunciation

  • British English: /ˈɡɹɑːs ˌwɪdəʊ/

Usage

Inflected Forms

grass widows (plural)

Phrases

grass-widowed grass widower grass widowhood

Synonyms

divorcee

Questions

How do you pronounce grass widow?
The recorded pronunciation is /ˈɡɹɑːs ˌwɪdəʊ/.
What does grass widow mean?
A married woman whose spouse is away.
Where does grass widow come from?
The word appears in the Germanic languages in different forms and senses, evidently being ancient, but the oldest (both 16th century) are English grasse wydowe and Middle Low German grasswēdewe, both meaning “girl who has lost her virginity, harlot”. Therefore “grass” in all likelihood refers to a bedding for premarital sex. Compare the expression green gown (“loss of virginity”). The girl became a “widow” in the sense that she was neither married nor a virgin. The sense then developed through “married woman who has relations in her husband’s absence” to the contemporary, softened meaning. Compare Dutch grasweduwe, Swedish gräsänka, German Strohwitwe. Etymonline cites the book Vocabulary of East Anglia (1830) by Rev. Robert Forby, which records the term in that region as essentially referring to a woman abandoned after an informal marriage.

How to pronounce grass widow

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “grass widow”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈɡɹɑːs ˌwɪdəʊ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “grass widow”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “grass widow” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.