Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Today's vocabulary lessons
Here are the literal definitions of some commonly misunderstood words about marriage and sexual ethics that I come across.
adultery = corruption of the marriage bed or the matrimonial agreement, from the Latin for "corruption."
annulment = a declaration that no true marriage exists (usually because there was some fraud, coersion, or impediment that made it impossible to freely contract marriage in the first place).
bigamy = being married to two people at the same time. Technically, it would mean the crime of attempting to contract a second marriage, since only the first one would be legally valid.
bride = a woman who is married or is soon to be married.
bridegroom = the bride's man (i.e., that she just married or is about to marry).
celibacy = the unmarried state (or what we usually call "being single"). Morally, it implies virginity, but not linguistically.
chastity = purity, in reference to a correctly or morally ordered sexuality.
concubine = a woman with whom a man cohabits or has as a sexual partner without establishing a marital contract. Most often used when the man already has a wife, and in some polygamous cultures, it notes the legal status of a secondary or lesser wife.
continence = voluntary self restraint, applied to the moral restraint from sexual intercourse required by the celibate state.
divorce = to divert from a husband, generally meaning the legal dissolution of wedlock by either party.
groom = a man.
husband = a householder or "master of the house."
marriage = the union of a woman to a man, refering both to the contractual/covenantal union and the physical union.
matrimony = the institution to foster a family, from the words for "motherly condition."
monogamy = having "one marriage," or being married to one person (not "one at a time").
nuptial = to take as a husband.
polygamy = many (or "multiple") marriages. It is applied to marriages that overlap chronologically, not generally to widows and widowers who remarry.
polygyny = having multiple wives.
polyandry = having multiple husbands.
virginity = unimpacted purity, usually applied to young maidenhood or to voluntary sexual continence in general.
wedding = the bonding in a covenant of one woman to one man.
wedlock = the bond of marriage, usually applied to the legal obligations of the marriage contract.
wife = a woman, usually applied to a married woman.
Also, Don Jim has an excellent primer on the distinction of vows and promises made by Catholic priests. (i.e., "Canonically, the Religious priest takes a sacred vow to abstain from sexual activity; the secular priest makes a promise not to get married.").
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1 comment:
polyandry . . . isn't that a light chicken gravy?
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