Bachelorette
Encyclopedia
Bachelorette is an American English term for an unmarried woman. The term is derived from the word bachelor
Bachelor
A bachelor is a man above the age of majority who has never been married . Unlike his female counterpart, the spinster, a bachelor may have had children...

, and is often used by journalists, editors of popular magazines, and some individuals. "Bachelorette" was famously the term used to refer to female contestants on the old Dating Game TV show.

In older English, the female counterpart term to "bachelor" was "spinster". However, this has acquired negative connotations and mostly been abandoned. When used now, it tends to imply that the woman has never been married and is too old to find a marriage and have children. A bachelorette may have previously been in a relationship.

In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, the term bachelorette also refers to a small bachelor apartment. The term bachelor apartment, used in Canada and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, refers to an apartment with only one large room serving as a bedroom and living room plus a separate bathroom (see studio apartment
Studio apartment
A studio apartment, also known as a studio flat , efficiency apartment or bachelor/bachelorette style apartment, is a small apartment which combines living room, bedroom, and kitchen or kitchenette into a single room...

).

Derivation

The more proper neologism would be bacheloress, since the -ess  suffix is the standard English suffix denoting a female subject, while -ette is a French-origin diminutive suffix, indicating that the subject is smaller and is of feminine gender. However, in American English the -ess suffix is only marginally morphologically
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...

 productive, and the -ette suffix can indicate a feminine version of a noun without a change in size (though many such words in -ette were intended to be jocular when they were first coined). The -ess suffix is also slowly falling into disuse in the English language due to attempts to neutralize professional terms; it is therefore less commonly applied to new terms nowadays.

Reasons for use

The traditional English term for a woman who has never married is a spinster
Spinster
A spinster, or old maid, is an older, childless woman who has never been married.For a woman to be identified as a spinster, age is critical...

, while a woman who is divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...

d is a divorcée
Divorcee
Divorcee, refers to a person whose marriage has ended in divorce, a legal dissolution of marriage before death by either spouse. The feminine form is "divorcée", and the masculine "divorcé". At one time the term had negative cultural and religious associations...

, and a woman whose spouse has died is a widow
Widow
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...

. All three of these terms have carried negative cultural
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

 connotations at one time or another. Spinster often implied that the woman was older than the age when most women traditionally marry and that she would probably never marry; more extremely this was defined as an 'old maid
Old Maid
Old maid is a Victorian card game for two to eight players probably deriving from an ancient gambling game in which the loser pays for the drinks. It is known in Germany as Schwarzer Peter, in Sweden as Svarte Petter and in Finland as Musta Pekka and in France as le pouilleux or vieux garçon...

'. Failing to marry was often looked down upon in many cultures. The term widow may be associated with an older woman (although a married woman can be widowed at any time). Divorcée and widow are also indicative that the woman no longer has her virginity
Virginity
Virginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...

. In some cultures, men would/will not marry a woman who was not a virgin.

The more popularly used term for the legal status of a young person (male or female) who has never been married is "single" or "never married".
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