Confirmed bachelor

Posted by Smokey Stover on March 13, 2010 at 03:03

In Reply to: Confirmed bachelor posted by Ky on March 12, 2010 at 19:25:

: I have searched the site for the phrase "confirmed bachelor" and it only came up once, but in reference to the phrase "cloverboy." I would like to find out the history of the phrase "confirmed bachelor," particularly to discover when it first held the connotation of homosexuality.

I didn't know that the phrase ever held to connotation of homosexuality. Obviously a man without female companionship in his life can expect gossip, but I don't think it has always accompanied the status of "confirmed bachelor," nor do I think it does now.

We don't have a parallel phrase "confirmed spinster," or at least I haven't heard it. Still women living alone except for a female comapanion can expect comments. Rosa Bonheur, possibly the most famous painter of horses in the 19th century and undoubtedly the most famous woman painter of her time, got all kinds of gossip because she lived with a woman. Geez Louise, who care?