Grass widow

Posted by Jose Carlos on December 31, 2004

What is the meaning of a grass widow? Where does the grass come from? Is the expression still in force?

In Portuguese we have a very old-fashioned expression: "casar na igreja verde" - "get married in the green church". The green church stands for the woods, the greens. So the meaning is to have an illicit relationship, actually out of a wedlock.

Could there possibly be a correlation between the "verde" (green) and the "grass" of each expression?

JC