Bachelorette

Bachelorette is a term used in American English for a single, unmarried woman. The term is derived from the word bachelor, and is often used by journalists, editors of popular magazines, and some individuals. "Bachelorette" was famously the term used to refer to female contestants on the old The Dating Game TV show and, more recently, The Bachelorette.

In older English, the female counterpart term to "bachelor" was "spinster". However, this has acquired negative connotations and mostly been abandoned. When used now, it tends to imply that the woman has never been married and is too old to find a husband and have children. A bachelorette may have previously been in a relationship.

In Canada, the term bachelorette also refers to a small bachelor apartment (an apartment with only one large room serving as a bedroom and living room plus a separate bathroom—see studio apartment).

Derivation

The more proper neologism would be bacheloress, since the -ess suffix is the standard English suffix denoting a female subject, while -ette is a French-origin diminutive suffix, mainly used to something is smaller in size. However, in American English the -ess suffix is only marginally morphologically productive, and the -ette suffix can indicate a feminine version of a noun without a change in size (though many such words in -ette were intended to be jocular when they were first coined). The -ess suffix is also slowly falling into disuse in the English language due to attempts to neutralize professional terms; it is therefore less commonly applied to new terms nowadays.

Single Women

"Single Women" is a song, written by Saturday Night Live writer Michael O'Donoghue. The song, which depicted a number of women looking for love in a singles bar was originally performed during an SNL sketch by Christine Ebersole on the October 10, 1981 broadcast. The song later provided a top-ten country hit for Dolly Parton from her 1982 Heartbreak Express album. Released as the album's first single in February 1982, it reached number 8 on the U.S. country singles chart in April 1982. The Parton version of the song featured somewhat reworked lyrics, as RCA requested she eliminate the drug references, fearful that they would cause the song to meet resistance on country radio. The song later inspired a 1984 TV movie starring Tony Danza and Jean Smart, which was produced by O'Donoghue. An abbreviated version of Parton's recording of the song was used as the movie's theme song.

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