A widow is a woman who has lost her spouse and has not remarried. This term has been used for centuries and is recognized in many cultures and languages. Widows face unique challenges, including financial instability, social isolation, and emotional distress. In some cultures, widows are stigmatized or even persecuted. However, there are also support systems and organizations that provide assistance and resources to widows. In addition to its use in describing a bereaved woman, the term widow has other meanings in different contexts. In design and architecture, a widow can refer to a window that has been left empty or to the last line of a paragraph that appears alone at the bottom of a page. In masonry construction, widows are small units used to fill in gaps in walls and provide stability to the structure. In the context of independent features attached to a wall, a widow can serve a variety of purposes, including visual partitioning, framing, and architectural detail. Overall, the term widow carries a weight of loss and grief, but also resilience and strength. Widows have faced challenges throughout history, but have also been able to find support and create communities. The term widow encompasses a range of meanings and contexts, but ultimately refers to a woman who has lost her spouse and is navigating the aftermath of that loss.
bereavement, support, stigma, design, architecture, masonry, construction, loss, grief
A Widow in the context of architecture is a feature that is not part of the main structure and is attached to a wall or other structure in an independent manner. The use of a Widow can be seen in a variety of places such as a room, a hallway, or any other space where the feature serves an aesthetic, structural or functional purpose. It is typically a long, narrow feature that can be used to provide a visual partition, to create a frame for a window, or to simply add an architectural detail to a room or hallway. The dimensions of a Widow may vary, depending on the purpose of the feature, and it is often crafted from a variety of materials such as stone, brick, wood, metal, and plaster.
Architectural, Design, Aesthetic, Structural, Functional
Masonry widows, or widows as they are commonly referred to, are small, individual masonry units typically used in the construction of load-bearing walls in masonry structures. These units are usually cast in the form of blocks or bricks, and are then laid in regular courses of masonry to form the wall. Widows are designed to provide stability, durability, and strength to the structure. They are also used to fill in any gaps between the walls and to provide insulation against temperature changes. Widows are usually made of concrete, stone, brick, or other similar materials, and are usually set in a mortar or sand and gravel mix.
Masonry, Masonry Units, Mortar, Sand, Gravel
As a graphics designer, it is important to understand the concept of widow. Hundreds of years ago, it described the last line of a paragraph that appears at the top of a page, leaving a lonely line of text at the bottom of the page. In today's digital age, the term widow is defined as a single word or short phrase that appears at the end of a paragraph, while the rest of the sentence continues on the next page. This can be an aesthetically displeasing site to view, as the text may appear to be broken up or incomplete. The challenge of the designer is to craft a placement of text on a page such that it avoids this Widow effect, paying attention to font type, size and spacing.
Graphics, Typography, Alignment, Layout, Formatting.
Designers often use the term 'widow' to describe the last line of a paragraph that appears on its own at the bottom of a page or column, separated from the preceding text by a page or column break. This often occurs when a line of text is too short to satisfy the appropriate margin or typographical conventions, leaving the isolated phrase alone at the bottom of the page. Widows result in a typographical imbalance that needs to be addressed for design consistency. Some design solutions for addressing widows are to manipulate the line and word spacing to fill gaps, switch the order of the text to better balance the layout, or adjust the margins so that no lines appear alone. Widows can easily be avoided by carefully controlling typesetting and formatting decisions, such as line length, leading and kerning.
Layout, Typography, Typesetting, Paragraph, Kerning.
The linguistic evolution of the noun 'widow' is extremely interesting, as it has a rich etymological history that can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European roots. The Proto-Indo-European root of the word can be traced back to 'ueh2-', a root word meaning 'to leave'. This root word provides the basis for other similar words such as 'abandon' and 'depart'. This root likely came to be used to describe women who were recently bereaved of their husbands, as their husbands had 'left' them. The word 'widow' is thought to have evolved into Old English through the Germanic root 'widuwa', which had the same meaning. This word changed to 'wuduwa' and then 'widew' in Middle English, and then to 'widowe' in Early Modern English. The morphological aspect of this word has remained relatively unchanged for centuries. The singular form is widow, with no variant forms, and the plural form is widows.
Etymology, Morphology, Pragmatics, Historical, Linguistics.
The English word “widow” can be classified as a noun, which is defined as “a woman whose spouse has died, especially one who has not remarried” in the Oxford English Dictionary. Synonyms of this term include “bereaved” (adjective) and “desolate” (adjective), while antonyms include “happily married” (adjective) and “widower” (noun). Cognates of this term in other languages include “Witwe” in German and “viúva” in Portuguese, among many others. Variants of this term include diminutives such as “widowy” (adjective) and “widowish” (adjective).
Linguistics, Morphology, Etymology, Widow, Death, Language, Lexicon, Synonym, Antonym, Cognate.
CITATION : "George Adrian Postea. 'Widow.' Design+Encyclopedia. https://design-encyclopedia.com/?E=218022 (Accessed on July 08, 2025)"
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, and she has not remarried. In some languages and cultures, there are specific terms used to refer to widows, such as veuve in French, viduva in Portuguese, weduw in Dutch, vedova in Italian, viuda in Spanish, and wittwe in German. Other term variations exist in languages such as Albanian (varrimtarja), Arabic (irhat al-marhum or irhat al-marhuma), Bulgarian (вдовица), Chinese (寡婦), Greek (χήρα), Hebrew (אלמנה), Hungarian (árva), Japanese (未亡人), Korean (미망인), Polish (wdowa), Romanian (văduvă), Russian (вдова), Serbian (удовка), Slovenian (vdova), Swedish (änka), Turkish (dul kadın), and Ukrainian (вдова).
widow, veuve, viduva, weduw, vedova, viuda, wittwe, varrimtarja, irhat al-marhum, irhat al-marhuma, вдовица, 寡婦, χήρα, אלמנה, árva, 未亡人, 미망인, wdowa, văduvă, вдова, удовка, vdova, änka, dul kadın, вдова
Widow is a term used in the fields of design, art and architecture to describe a window which has been deliberately left empty. It is typically used to allow light to enter a room or to create a visual focal point in a space. Often, this window is framed with a specific architectural feature or aesthetic, such as a balustrade, or a feature with a decorative frame. In modern architecture, the window is often used to create visual interest and enhance the overall look and design of a building.
Window design, windows, window architecture, window art, window installation.
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