Etymograph

English

spouseless

Spouseless comes from Middle English spouselees.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500spouselees1
  2. Englishearliest quotation 2007spouseless1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English spouseless
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2007, Byron Calame, Can a 15-Year-Old Be a ‘Woman Without a Spouse’?: “But the new majority materialized only because The Times…”.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500spouseleesWiktionary, English spouseless
  2. Englishearliest quotation 2007spouselessWiktionary, English spouseless. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2007, Byron Calame, Can a 15-Year-Old Be a ‘Woman Without a Spouse’?: “But the new majority materialized only because The Times…”

Formed from spouse + -less

Proto-Indo-European *spend- ‘to libate’

…

Latin spondeō ‘to vow, pledge’

Latin spōnsus ‘bridegroom’

Anglo-Norman espus

Middle English spous

English spouse

Every English word from Middle English spouselees

Today it means

adj Without a spouse; unmarried.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “spouseless”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Middle English spouselees / spouseless

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