Ex-Princess Diana Still Dead, Still Formerly Married To Once-Notable Family

As incurious people in England and beyond celebrate the tenth birthday of Diana's lifeless body this week, writers everywhere are struggling for as many adjectives and prefixes as they can find that convey the concept of "former". I needed three for the headline of this article alone.

The woman is simply no longer living, while living was no longer a princess, and while a princess was associated with a system of monarchy that it would be charitable to describe in this era as "quaint" instead of "embarrassingly superfluous."

There have been many notable non-hereditary princesses throughout history. The princess pictured here attained royalty through clandestine adoption, not marriage, as did Diana.

If you could avoid using the following words this week, it would be a great help to journalists who are facing a shortage.

former
once-
prior
anterior
previous
earlier
antecedent
past
ex-
one-time
hitherto

P.S. Note the ratio between a woman's age and the degree to which the name 'princess' implies a compliment:

ratio of age to degree of likelihood that "princess" is meant derogatorily