benedict \BEN-uh-dikt\ noun : a newly married man who has long been a bachelor
Example sentence: Tabloid reporters never tire of asking celebrity benedicts what they think of married life.
Did you know? "Benedick" is the chief male character in Shakespeare's play _Much Ado About Nothing_. Throughout the play, both Benedick and his female counterpart Beatrice exchange barbed comments and profess to detest the very idea of marriage, but the story eventually culminates in their marriage to each other. As a result, Benedick's name came to be applied to men who marry later in life. The spelling was changed to "benedict," possibly by association with a use of "benedict" meaning "bachelor" (although the evidence for this use is scant). Some early 20th-century usage commentators regarded the respelling as incorrect with regards to the etymology, but "benedict" has become the established spelling nevertheless.
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