Bachelor under discussion. Also in the Victorian era, the term "confirmed bachelor" denoted a man who was resolute to remain unmarried. By the later 19th century, the term "bachelor" had acquired the general sense of "unmarried man". The expression bachelor party is recorded 1882. In 1895, a feminine equivalent "bachelor-girl" was coined, replaced in US English by "bachelorette" by the mid-1930s. After World War II, this terminology came to be seen as antiquated and has been mostly replaced by the gender-neutral term "single" (first recorded 1964). In England and Wales, the term "bachelor" remained the official term used for the purpose
Spinster this sense "is ... perceived as insulting. It implies negative qualities such as being fussy or undesirable". Also included is a sense of the word used specifically in a legal context: "a woman who has never married". Wordreference.com describes the "woman still unmarried" sense of 'spinster' as "dated". Age is a crucial part of the definition, according to Robin Lakoff's explanation in "Language and Woman's Place". "If someone is a spinster, by implication she is not eligible [to marry]; she has had her chance, and been passed by". "Hence, a girl of twenty cannot be properly called a spinster: she