Spinsters All!

I am a spinster.

I recently returned from a spin on my “vehicle consisting of a light frame mounted on two wire-spoked wheels,” more commonly known as a bicycle. I was able to ride my bike because the wheels spin, that is they “rotate rapidly; whirl.” This type of spinning, or rotating, allows us to go about our daily business, such as riding a bike, without fear of flying off into space. Since the beginning, the world has been spinning! After all, gravity is not just a good idea; it’s the law!

 I am a spinster.

I spin “yarns,” an informal word meaning “a long, often elaborate narrative of real or fictitious adventures; an entertaining tale.” Like most people, for most of my life I have created narratives, true or not, in order to get out of trouble—or maybe to get into trouble!—to educate, to entertain, to convince.  Spinning yarns was a major reason I created “Be-Lied.” In “Be-Lied,” I spin both “true” yarns and fictitious yarns. My most recent yarn, “My Story—Road Trip,” is twisted mostly from fictitious fibers.

I am NOT a spinster.

I am married, but I do not spin yarns, literally, by making “thread or yarn by drawing out and twisting fibers.” While reading recently, I ran across the word “spinster,” as in old maid, and wondered in terms of the occupation of spinning, how did the word come to denote “a woman, especially an older one, who has not married”?

While the above definitions all come from the “American Heritage Dictionary,” I initially consulted the “Oxford English Dictionary” for answers to this word mystery. The first definition reads, “a woman (or, rarely, a man) who spins, esp. one who practises spinning as a regular occupation.” The second definition reads, “Appended to the names of women, originally in order to denote their occupation, but subsequently (from the 17^th century) as the proper legal designation of one still unmarried.” Obviously, sometime in the 1600’s, spinsters developed the reputation of avoiding marriage in addition to twisting yarns.

Why the occupation of spinster became associated with women who remain unmarried is not clear. Perhaps after marriage, spinsters had no time to spin yarns, as their heads were likely spinning with the duties of running a household. At any rate, perhaps I should spin a yarn to explain!