In ancient times widows often called themselves 'wèiwángrén' in letters.
Tips
history
Literally 'a person not yet dead.' First attested in the 《左传》 (Spring and Autumn period): a widow used it to mean 'I should have died with my husband but have not yet.' The Confucian framing is grim — a widow's life was treated as borrowed time.
register
Highly literary and now rare — you will see it in historical drama or formal obituaries, almost never in modern speech. Today's neutral term is 寡妇 (guǎfù) or, more politely, 遗孀 (yíshuāng).
