About

Thornback is a derogatory term for an unmarried woman over the age of 25 or in their 30s referring to a type of ray fish with spikes on its back.

Origin

In 1694, The Oxford English Dictionary^[4] recognized the first usages of the slang 'thornback' and then sites a definition in an 1898 issue of The Daily News, "After 25, young ladies were called 'thorn-backs' by the much marrying Puritans of New England." Other scholars such as Rebecca Traister claimed that then term was used for women 26 and up by saying, "At twenty-six, women without spouses became thornbacks, a reference to a sea-skate with sharp spines covering its back and tail. It was not a compliment." This was quoted from her book^[2] "All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation"^[3] In Terri L. Permo's book "Winter Friends: Women Growing Old in the New Republic, 1785-1835," the author states, "While single women in their mid-twenties might be viewed with both 'alarm and pity,' a thirty-year-old New England Spinster would be openly labeled a 'thornback.' Often forced to rely on brothers and other relatives for support in late life, single women faced bleak prospects of dependency and financial insecurity."

Spread

On April 21st, 2015, Urban Dictionary^[5] user enzo500 defined thornback as "An old single never married woman. A spinster
She's so old she graduated from a spinster to a thornback #spinster#old#maid#lonely#woman."

On March 12th, 2019, Sophia Benoit^[1] tweeted "Omg I just found out that spinster used to be reserved for women 23-26 and that after you turned 26 if you were unmarried you became a…. THORNBACK. How fucking great is that name!?" (shown below). The tweet gained 2,000 replies, 18,000 retweets and 95,800 likes in a day. The Twitter user continued on to tweet "Brb opening a bar called Thornbacks and we only play Rom coms and the bachelor on tv" and "This works perfectly with my already brilliant idea of opening a sangria bar"

The reclamation of the term as something less derogatory and more "badass" was reported on by numerous news outlets like Buzzfeed^[6], The Mary Sue^[7] and Yahoo^[8].

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References