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<DIV>“It is a serious inconvenience that neither form ... has been brought into
any but facetious use as a prefixed title ... See FEMININE DESIGNATIONS.” (H. W.
FOWLER, “A Dictionary of Modern English Usage”, 1926).</DIV>
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<DIV>However, I’m not sure I’m always able to keep up with developments.
For instance, yesterday I was reading “Virginia Woolf and Heritage: Selected
Papers from the Twenty-sixth Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf"
[at Leeds Trinity University - 16-19 June 2016], with my animal companion (<FONT
face="Times New Roman">✔</FONT>) on my lap, when I read this:</DIV>
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<DIV>“Jane Marcus’s widow, Michael . . .”</DIV>
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<DIV>[Why, oh why, do some lesbians adopt masculine names? (Thank you,
Radclyffe Hall.)]</DIV>
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<DIV>Then four pages later: </DIV>
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<DIV>“Jane’s husband and family”.</DIV>
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<DIV>[Well, Jane Marcus certainly put it about!]</DIV>
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<DIV>On second thoughts, perhaps Americans don’t (any longer?) use the word
“widower”?</DIV>
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<DIV>Stuart</DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>