Also laut dem "American Heritage Dictionary" (auf bartleby.com) kann es auch im Amerikanischen durchaus die Bedeutung "verheiratete Person, deren Ehepartner zeitweilig abwesend ist" haben (s. jew. Bedeutung 2):


"grass widow

NOUN:1. A woman who is divorced or separated from her husband. 2. A woman whose husband is temporarily absent. 3. An abandoned mistress. 4. The mother of a child born out of wedlock."

(http://www.bartleby.com/61/67/G0236700.html)


"grass widower

NOUN:1. A man who is divorced or separated from his wife. 2. A man whose wife is temporarily absent."

(http://www.bartleby.com/61/68/G0236800.html)

If you actually used "grass widower" nobody would know what you were talking about. The standard term in this context is "bachelor" or "batchin' it" (slang)

My wife is on a business trip so this week I'm a bachelor.
My wife is on a businees trip so this week I'm batchin' it.

I would also say "geographical bachelor".. one who is only a bachelor because of physical distance

I would also say "geographical bachelor".. one who is only a bachelor because of physical distance

I have been wondering about this as well. "Grass Widow" and "Grass Widower" are very archaic terms. I would agree with the "bachelor" and "bachelorette" translation.

If someone said they were a bachelor (for the week), I'd get the imagine that they were living off take-away meals and not hoovering. Certain types of bachelor also have lots of casual sex. (Depends on up bringing and location of the individual!)

I would simply say that I've "got the house to myself".

I was foxed with "grass widow/er" (felt like a cow grazing somewhere), even so more with the "better translation" into "geographical bachelor"; all quite meaningless in English. I agree to "got the house to myself" as the last comment says.

"Have the house to myself" is the only appropriate translation I have seen in this thread. I have never heard of a "grass widow," and "bachelor" (Junggeselle) would only make sense if the context was as clear as the example. "Geographical bachelor" sounds like a bad German translation, and I've never heard of "batchin' it" which might work with an MTV audience.

... "temporary bachelor," "bachelor for a day," "bachelor for a week," etc., when the wife is away. The implication that they are free to have a good time, not that they are going to let the house get dirty. Hard to think of an equivalent for a woman, though. ("Bachelorette for a day"?) Expressions with "widow" are sometimes used to express unwillingness in the situation, like "golf widow" (a woman whose husband plays too much golf).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21jezRGSgL0&fe...
4:32 into the movie: ...on the first night of you "Summer bachelorhood"...Edward G. Robinson refuses to go to a burlesque show.

Movie scripts often prove a worthwhile inspiration for propper translation of the vernacular! As for one I never heard, for the life of me, any such expression as "grass widower" either.
Mike

@James (US)
"batching it" is commonly used in Australia, but it is a colloquial expression. I quite definitely did not learn it from MTV :-)

I would definitely say either "I have the place to myself this week" or "I'm footloose and fancy free this week"

If someone can be a golf widow, then I guess I'm a "work widow"

Grass widow is traditional but certainly sounds old-fashioned. When it was commoner, men weren't in the comparable situation, or would have been ashamed of it, so I doubt that grass widower was ever much used. But then how often does Strowhwitwer come up? The first few screens of Google hits are dictionary artifacts or jokes; one from a site called Nonstop-Nonsens. Maybe it's at least wryly humorous in your example?

Still Strohwitwe is undoubtedly more current in German than grass widow is in English, and for that reason, I'd go with one of the alternative suggestions.