Etymology
1. O.E.
widewe, widuwe, from P.Gmc.
*widewo (cf. O.S.
widowa, O.Fris.
widwe, M.Du., Du.
weduwe, Du.
weeuw, O.H.G.
wituwa, Ger.
Witwe, Goth.
widuwo), from PIE adj.
*widhewo (cf. Skt.
vidhuh "lonely, solitary,"
vidhava "widow;" Avestan
vithava, L.
vidua, O.C.S.
vidova, Rus.
vdova, O.Ir.
fedb, Welsh
guedeu "widow;" Pers.
beva, Gk.
eitheos "unmarried man;" L.
viduus "bereft, void"), from base
*weidh- "to separate" (cf. second element in L.
di-videre "to divide;" see with). As a prefix to a name, attested from 1576. Meaning "short line of type" (especially at the top of a column) is 1904 print shop slang. The verb is attested from c.1300.
Widower is first attested 1362.
Widow's mite is from Mark xii.43.
Widow's peak is from the belief that hair growing to a point on the forehead is an omen of early widowhood, suggestive of the "peak" of a widow's hood.
Widow maker "anything lethally dangerous" first recorded 1945, originally among loggers, in reference to dead trees, etc. The
widow bird (1747) so-called in ref. to the long black tail feathers of the males, suggestive of widows' veils.
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁
4. Proto-Indo-European *dwi-
5. Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-
6. Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁-
7. Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂
8. Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ
9. Proto-West Germanic *widuwā
10. Old English widuwe
11. Middle English widwe
12. English widow
13. PIE word
14. *dwóh₁
15. From Middle English widow, from Old English widuwe (“widow”), from Proto-West Germanic *widuwā (“widow”), from Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ (“widow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂ (“widow”), possibly from *h₁weydʰh₁-, *widʰ- (“to separate, split, cleave, divide”), whence also wood from Old English widu, wudu.
16. Cognates
17. Cognate with Scots weedae, wedow, widdow (“widow”), Cimbrian bittaba (“widow”), Dutch weduwe, weeuw (“widow”), German Witwe (“widow”), Vilamovian wytwa (“widow”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐍉 (widuwō, “widow”), Old Irish fedb (“widow”), Welsh gweddw (“widow”), Asturian and Spanish viuda (“widow”), Aragonese and Latin vidua (“widow”), Catalan vídua (“widow”), French veuve (“widow”), Galician and Portuguese viúva (“widow”), Italian vedova (“widow”), Romanian văduvă (“widow”), Ancient Greek ἠΐθεος (ēḯtheos, “bachelor”), Albanian ve (“widow, widower”), Belarusian удава́ (udavá, “widow”), Czech, Slovak, and Slovene vdova (“widow”), Polish gdowa, wdowa (“widow”), Russian and Ukrainian вдова́ (vdová, “widow”), Serbo-Croatian udova, у̀дова (“widow”), Central Kurdish بێوە (bêwe, “widow”), Ossetian идӕдз (idæʒ, “widowed”), Persian بیوه (bive, bêva, “widow”), Sanskrit विधवा (vidhavā, “widow”). See: Wymysorys '
wytwa', Romanian '
văduvă', Albanian '
ve'.