(This one is really for LH, but all are welcome to join).
Telling a friend about “The City of Falling Angels,” John Berendt’s wonderfully gossipy book on Venice, I mentioned his story on how Ezra Pound’s “widow” was cheated.
It got me thinking. She was not actually his widow, because she had been his partner, not his wife. So what is the (indeed, is there a) single word for the survivor of a partnership.
In Jan Morris’ review of the book, she uses the term “lover”, but that needs extra words to explain that the partner is dead.
Any suggestions ?
but that needs extra words to explain that the partner is dead.
Not really. I think “Widow” describes a person’s current status more than it does their relation to a dead spouse, and that position is going (hopefully) out of existence. Sister, father & so on don’t change. “Former partner” wouldn’t work; both for the same reason that “former sister” is inappropriate and also because it might mean that they’d separated rather than died.
Sometimes after death “wife” is more accurate than “widow” (if I talk about “George Orwell’s wife” having outlived him by x years it’s better than “George Orwell’s widow” having outlived … don’t you think?)
I think “Ezra Pound’s wife (lover, partner, brother, daughter) was cheated after he died” is good.
I agree with AJP; you’re not going to get a single-word equivalent, but it’s easy to rephrase.
*beams with pride*
LH: Ok, there’s no single word for it. That’s what I wanted to know, Thanks as ever.
AJP *the goat-keeping man’s thinker*