widow's walk

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sat, 28 Oct 2000, Nathan H Brown wrote:

> I know what a widow's walk is, but does anyone know anything else about
> the phrase? Where it came from, when it came into use, who first used it,
> anything at all about it? My mother needs to know for a newspaper story
> she's writing. Any help would be appreciated.

The earliest citation in the OED is from 1939 S. Chamberlain _Nantucket_,
but clearly the expression is older than this.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
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