Is there a word like widow or widower to describe a surviving twin?

October 22, 2005 2:37 PM

Is there a word like widow or widower to describe a surviving twin?

My friend thinks I should know this since I'm a twin. She wants to know because the "twinspan" in New Orleans has only one surviving span.

posted by Frank Grimes to human relations (12 comments total)

I'm sorry to give you such a disappointing answer, but apparently they are called "Twinless Twins."

The act of losing a twin is called "Twinloss."
posted by dsword at 2:54 PM on October 22, 2005

If there is a better phrase it will certainly be found in the movie Twin Falls Idaho
posted by cyphill at 3:51 PM on October 22, 2005

I don't believe there is any such word in English. Until lately there weren't enough twins for the event to need its own word.
posted by Ken McE at 4:09 PM on October 22, 2005

Actually, it's not quite accurate to say there is "one surviving span" of the I-10 Slidell to NOLA bridge. Both spans were very heavily damaged, and the contractors were asked to use the surviving modules of the more heavily damaged span to repair the one that was in slightly better shape. (The ability to do this was, incidentally, a deliberate design feature. It wouldn't be possible with the Causeway toll bridge, since the two spans date from different times and have different module lengths.)

Now that traffic is re-established along I-10, the contract has moved into full repair or new bridge phase. Ultimately there is supposed to be a New and Improved Higher and Stronger bridge (with more lanes, too, since it always was a choke point). Eventually, the current "surviving" span will be demolished or will become a service road.
posted by localroger at 4:25 PM on October 22, 2005

Thanks, localroger.
posted by Frank Grimes at 4:48 PM on October 22, 2005

Good link, dsword, but it didn't tell me what you call the two surviving triplets after one dies.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:44 PM on October 22, 2005

"Lonely."
posted by five fresh fish at 6:11 PM on October 22, 2005 [1 favorite]

Faint of Butt: Yeah, I was frustrated by that as well. Maybe the same term applies to both, with the qualifier that they are only one twin less many.

I suggest renaming the Twinspan the Unispan to emphasize that there's something special to there being only one span.

Here in the Twin Cities, if St. Paul were to suddenly disappear, I believe everybody would still just refer to Minneapolis.
posted by dsword at 6:26 PM on October 22, 2005

...but it didn't tell me what you call the two surviving triplets after one dies.
Since triplets and above represent both the number and the relationship, is it inaccurate (or simply insensitive) to downshift the label to reflect the new number? Triplets become twins. Quadruplets become triplets, etc...
posted by Jeff Howard at 12:16 AM on October 23, 2005

In medicine, we call the twins "Twin A" and "Twin B." Twin B is the sickly, lighter-weight one.

After that Radiohead album came out, pediatricians started calling them "Kid A" and "Kid B," I kid you not.
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:56 AM on October 23, 2005

"Surviving twin" beats "twinless twin" 15 to 1 on Google.

The Twinspan will be twins again by January, so you'd better hurry to get its twinless nature memorialized.
posted by dhartung at 8:21 PM on October 23, 2005

The last article on this page talks about "vanishing twins". What do they call the remaining of the pair? Singletons.
posted by ArsncHeart at 8:24 AM on December 3, 2005