levirate
/ˈlɛvɪɹət/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.43 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The institution of levirate marriage.
Example Sentences
- "And it is, he says, impossible not to believe that the Levirate—that is, the practice of marrying a dead brother's widow—is derived from polyandry."
- "It is only a secondary purpose of the levirate that the property of the deceased passes on to the one who is heir to his name, and is probably a later accretion."
- "The levirate is found in patrilineal societies in which the bride marries into her husband's family while essentially severing her ties with her original family."
Etymology
From Latin lēvir (“husband's brother, brother-in-law”) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dayh₂wḗr (“one's brother-in-law”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *dayh₂wḗr