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Spinster

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Webster Dictionary
• Spinster
Encyclopedias
McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia
• Spinster

a term applied to an unmarried woman in legal documents, and in banns or proclamations of marriage. Spinster, with the old termination, is the female of spinner, as songster is of singer, seamster or seamster of seamer. King Alfred, in his will, calls the male side of his house the spear side, and the female the spindle side. The term is derived from the old occupation of women.