What "Spinster" Originally Meant (And How it Turned Into an Insult)

It's a fluff publication and I love it. Mental floss does surprisingly well-researched pieces, even if they only scratch the surface.

Weaving and spinning were also lower-paying occupations that many single women undertook in an effort to acquire some financial stability. They required little equipment or financial backing, making them accessible to women without husbands or extensive resources. This may have helped create an association between being a spinster and being a poor, unmarried woman, which may have also contributed to the term’s lingering negative connotations.

On the other hand, some scholars note that women who were able to make a living through spinning and weaving also may have actually sometimes been more financially independent than women without vocations of their own, enabling them to choose to remain single. Being a spinster may even have been a point of pride for some of these women.

By the 18th century, however, the term had become a legal designation that described single women. It slowly developed its association with “old maids” and unwanted singledom, likely due to patriarchal pressures that encouraged women to marry and demonized those who did not.