E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Benedict.
A bachelor, not necessarily one pledged to celibacy, but simply a man of marriageable age, not married. St. Benedict was a most uncompromising stickler for celibacy.
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“Is it not a pun? There is an old saying, ‘Needles and pins; when a man marries his trouble begins.’ If so, the unmarried man is benedictus.”—Life in the West.
