While reading Staking Her Claim: Women Homesteading the West, by Marcia Meredith Hensley, I came across a reference to a woman referring to a single neighbor man as a “grass widow” in a letter written by Julia Erickson in Winnett, Montana, in 1911 (page 111).
Doing a little research, I discovered that men could be referred to as “grass widowers” just in the same way as women could be referred to as “grass widows.” The reason was the same: the spouse was “gone.” Of course, gone can mean quite a few things from temporarily away, to separated, to divorced.
But use of the adjective “grass” was not limited to women. It could apply to men as well.
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