Other forms: widowers
A widower is a man whose wife has died. A recent widower, left a widower, the widower's pension.
The word is built the other way round from most pairs — widow came first and the male form was made from it by adding -er, where English usually adds an ending to the male word. Widowers remarry sooner than widows do, on average, and live less long alone.
1nounwidowerA man whose wife has died.
“My grandfather has been a widower for ten years and still sets two cups on the table.”
widower is a person.
Middle English widwere is widow plus -er. Unusually, the male form was derived from the female one.
Middle English
widwere
English, today
widower
From Middle English widwere, equivalent to widow + -er.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA