The Penguin Dictionary of American English Usage and Style : A ...

B
BACHELOR and SPINSTER. A
movie review said, “William Hurt plays
Graham Holt, a male spinster who
shocks neighbors when he decides to
adopt a 10-year-old.”
“Male spinster” is as contradictory as
“female bachelor.” A spinster is a female
by definition: She is a woman beyond
the usual age for marrying who has not
been married. (In some contexts, like
British law, age is not relevant. Neither
is sex on rare occasions: in a primordial
use of spinster as a professional spinner
of fiber.)
The actor described in the movie review
plays a bachelor. Numerous dictionaries
define bachelor as “an unmarried
man.” That definition is incomplete.
The word often implies that the man (1)
is of the usual age for marrying, or beyond,
and (2) has never been married.
At least two dictionaries recognize bachelorette
and the synonymous bachelor
girl. Of course a college graduate of either
sex may be a bachelor of arts, science,
or some special field. But only a
male can be a plain bachelor.
One who is unmarried as a result of
divorce is a divorcée (woman) or divorcé
(man), pronounced dih-vaur-SAY either
way. A divorced person, without regard
to sex, is a divorcee, pronounced dihvaur-SEE.
One who has been bereaved
of a spouse and who has not remarried
is either a widow (woman) or a widower
(man). Any unmarried status is commonly
called single, although the Bureau
of the Census has long defined single as
“never married.”
BACK(-) prefix and pairs. A news
article described a drug trial in Florida
and added, “Locally it took a backseat
to news of the crack cocaine epidemic in
Jacksonville. . . .” When used as a noun,
the term back seat consists of two
words: “Locally it took a back seat ...”
or “The passenger sat in the back seat.”
The two words are hyphenated when
used as an adjective, usually in back-seat
driver. (The article’s joining of the
phrase contradicted the newspaper’s
own style rule.)
The same goes for back room: two
words as a noun (“Come into the back
room”), hyphenation as an adjective (“It
was a back-room deal”). It has to do
with pronunciation. Unifying the words
would indicate that the first syllable
should be stressed. Actually, each syllable
gets about equal stress in back seat,
and the same is true for back room. It is
also true for the two-word nouns back
road and back yard. The latter is often
spelled “backyard,” although the noun
front yard is always two words. The
Associated Press understandably calls
for back yard as a noun, backyard as an
adjective. In a phrase like backyard
barbecue, the stress shifts to the first syllable.
As nouns, back door and back stairs
32 bachelor and spinster