| 词组 | widow, widower |
| 释义 | widow, widower When a married man dies, is he survived by his widow or by his wife? This is not a question that many people ask themselves, but it has some importance for the writers of obituaries. The few commentators who have passed judgment on this matter favor wife over widow, possibly because it is considered redundant to identify a woman as a widow when the death of her husband has already been established, or because using widow somehow seems to imply that the woman was a widow even before her husband's death. In any case, a review of current practice in various newspapers shows that both wife and widow are used (some papers favor one, some favor the other, some use both). Wife is the more common choice. Another question that is of concern chiefly to journalists is whether or not it is correct to write "Mrs. Nancy Smith, widow of the late George Smith." Several commentators, including Bernstein 1965 and Copperud 1970, 1980, have criticized this use of the late as redundant. Redundant it may be, but it is also idiomatic English. The late actually functions as a sort of title of respect in such contexts (see late). It is worth noting that no such questions are likely to arise when the person who has died is the wife rather than the husband. A woman is never said to be "survived by her widower." If the woman who has died was a particularly noteworthy person, her surviving husband may be identified as "widower of the late ... ," but "husband of the late ..." is probably more likely. Widower is a less common word than widow and, unlike widow, it is rarely preceded by a possessive or followed by of. Two reasons for the differences in usage are that husbands are not normally identified by reference to their wives and that wives usually outlive their husbands. Those who are angered by the first reason may take some solace from the second. |
| 随便看 |
|
英语用法大全包含2888条英语用法指南，基本涵盖了全部常用英文词汇及语法点的翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。