levirate marriage

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

levirate +‎ marriage, from Late Latin lēvir (“husband's brother”).

Noun[edit]

levirate marriage (countable and uncountable, plural levirate marriages)

  1. A marriage in which a widow marries her late husband's brother in order to maintain the family community.
    • 2008, Deborah L. Ellens, Women in the Sex Texts of Leviticus and Deuteronomy: A Comparative Conceptual Analysis, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 261:
      Levirate marriage protects a levir's sexual property and a dead man's entitlement. The former, however, serves the latter.

Coordinate terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=levirate_marriage&oldid=78184377"