Widower
/ˈwɪd.oʊ.ər/noun
A man whose wife has died and who has not remarried.
Did you know?Widower comes from the same ancient root as widow, but English added the masculine -er ending later, turning a grief-word into a gendered role word.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*u̯eidh-
“to separate, to part from”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*u̯iH₁dʰwéh₂
“widow; a woman separated from her husband”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*widuwō
“widow”
Old English
English
widewe
“widow”
Middle English
English
widowe
“widow”
Late Middle English
English
widower
“a widowed man”