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Is Celibacy the Future?

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Ionus
 
  0  
Reply Sun 5 Apr, 2015 08:43 am
@Olivier5,
Traditionally they are called a spinster but using that word will probably get someone lynched by the Libbies, so bachelorette I guess it is ...
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argome321
 
  1  
Reply Sun 5 Apr, 2015 09:46 am
@Olivier5,
Quote:
Man or woman. Let's take a 50 yr old woman without education. She can't read nor write, and has never been married. Therefore she's a bachelorette?

Am I the only one to hear a dissonance here?


Technically? I guess she could be considered a bachelorette?
Why not?

Perhaps here in the USA we don't take in consideration age and educational backgrounds. Perhaps here in the USA we aren't too literate. I don't know.
Olivier5
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Apr, 2015 08:38 am
@argome321,
Quote:
Why not?

Because of what the word conjures or evokes. "Bachelorette" evokes a young, well-educated, upward mobile woman not yet married but looking forward to be.

In spite of the derogatory connotations, I think "spinster" or "old maid" convey the idea of an unmarried middle age women much better than "bachelorette" does. What's the equivalent of "old maid" for men? "Old boy"?

Quote:
Perhaps here in the USA we don't take in consideration age and educational backgrounds.

Looks like a socialist paradise...
ehBeth
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Apr, 2015 08:47 am
@Olivier5,
Olivier5 wrote:

Because of what the word conjures or evokes. "Bachelorette" evokes a young, well-educated, upward mobile woman not yet married but looking forward to be.


that's the current t.v. age meaning - it was popularized by The Dating Game back in the 1960's

in the 1930's when the word first came into common use, it simply meant unmarried woman - just as bachelor means unmarried man
Olivier5
 
  0  
Reply Mon 6 Apr, 2015 08:57 am
@ehBeth,
I suppose "unmarried" man or woman is a perfectly good term, or just "single man/woman".

"Bachelor man" and "bachelor woman" can also work I guess, although to me they evoke a certain milieu where secondary education is taken for granted.

"Bachelorette" sounds oddly cheerful. I would only use it for a young woman because of the "ette" ending. M-W has the word meaning "a young unmarried woman".
0 Replies
 
argome321
 
  2  
Reply Mon 6 Apr, 2015 09:50 am
@Olivier5,
Quote:
Looks like a socialist paradise...


I don't know...is there such a thing?

I think it is more about good old Americanism ( is there such a word?)...that one can rise above their lot in life.
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Mon 6 Apr, 2015 09:59 am
@Olivier5,
Olivier5 wrote:
What's the equivalent of "old maid" for men? "Old boy"?
As a card game, "old maid" is called o schwarzer Peter ("black Peter") in German and in French ... vieux garçon. Wink
maxdancona
 
  0  
Reply Mon 6 Apr, 2015 10:06 am
@Walter Hinteler,
Is that the same as this guy?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Zwartepiet.png/270px-Zwartepiet.png

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Olivier5
 
  0  
Reply Mon 6 Apr, 2015 10:07 am
@argome321,
Sounds like good old American wishful thinking to me. :-)

Your society is NOT more equal or egalitarian than others.
argome321
 
  2  
Reply Mon 6 Apr, 2015 10:12 am
@Olivier5,
Quote:
Your society is NOT more equal or egalitarian than others.


Yes, you're correct but we as Americans have the audacious privilege to be hubris and obnoxious. It's in our blood.
Olivier5
 
  0  
Reply Mon 6 Apr, 2015 10:12 am
@Walter Hinteler,
Yes, "vieux garçon / vieille fille" - it's a bit outdated now though. People would rather say: "un/une célibataire". There is no implication of chastity in the French word "célibat" -- it just means "not married".
0 Replies
 
Olivier5
 
  0  
Reply Mon 6 Apr, 2015 10:14 am
@argome321,
Quote:
Yes, you're correct but we as Americans have the audacious privilege to be hubris and obnoxious. It's in our blood.

LOL... I think it's in ours too...
0 Replies
 
 

 
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