Widow’s weeds

Weeds in this sense is simply a very old word for clothing and derives from the Old English wæd, meaning garment or clothing, and which dates back to Anglo-Saxon times in the 9th century. The expression widow’s weeds, however, dates from the late 1500s and describes the black clothes commonly worn by widows as a symbol of mourning. In Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part III, Act III, Scene III, Queen Margaret says, “Tell him, my mourning weeds are laid aside.”