grass widowとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (英国発音) IPA: /ˈɡɹɑːs ˌwɪdəʊ/

名詞

grass widow (plural grass widows)

1. A married woman whose spouse is away. [from 19th c.]
   • 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “A Second-rate Woman”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 115:

     "Can't help it. I'm a lone, lorn grass-widow, dear, but I will not sleep in my stays."

   • 1941, James M. Cain, Mildred Pierce, New York: Random House:

     Then Mrs. Gessler shook her head. "Well, you've joined the biggest army on earth. You're the great American institution that never gets mentioned on Fourth of July -- a grass widow with two small children to support. The dirty bastards."

   • Isaac Bashevis Singer, translated by Marian Magid and Elizabeth Pollet Collected stories : Gimpel the fool to The letter writer: Gimpel the fool & other stories, The Spinoza of Market Street, Short Friday & other stories, The séance & other stories, "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy", New York : Library of America : Distributed in the United States by Penguin Putnam, p. 461:

     And who ever heard of a demon sending his wife a divorce? When a demon marries a daughter of mortals,he usually lets her remain a grass widow.

   • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 226:

     I was disappointed when it was her who opened the door and said, ‘Ah, I had a feeling you were thinking about me! Come in, come in, do! I am a grass widow.’

2. (obsolete) An unmarried woman who has had premarital sexual relations; a former mistress. [from 16th c.]

派生語

• grass-widowed
• grass widower
• grass widowhood

参照

• W. Martin with G[uy] A. J. Tops, et al. (1998), Van Dale Groot Woordenboek Engels–Nederlands [Van Dale Great Dictionary, English–Dutch], 3rd edition, volume I, Utrecht; Antwerp: Van Dale Lexicografie, →ISBN.

Further reading

• Anatoly Liberman (18 February 2009), “Grass Widows and Straw Men”, in OUPblog‎, archived from the original on 28 June 2010
• Michael Quinion (1996–2025), “Grass widow”, in World Wide Words.