get married

en-verb

get married (third-person singular simple present gets married, present participle getting married, simple past got married, past participle (UK) got married or (US) gotten married)

gets married (present singular third-person)
getting married (participle present)
got married (past)
got married (UK participle past)
gotten married (US participle past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-get married.wav

After a five-year engagement he finally decided to get married to Ash.

(intransitive) To become married (to someone).

After a five-year engagement they finally decided to get married.

(reciprocal, intransitive) To become married (to each other).


I do

They'd been pushing for me to get pregnant ever since I said "I do." And now that I was, do you think they were happy? No way.

2003, Joanne Kimes, Sanford A. Tisherman, Pregnancy Sucks: What to Do when Your Miracle Makes you Miserable, →ISBN, page 101:

When she said ‘I do’ at the altar she was deemed to have made herself sexually available to her husband whenever he might wish.

2008, Mary Holmes, Gender and Everyday Life, →ISBN, page 75:

A traditional phrase said upon acceptance of marriage.

我愿意

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see I, do.


matron of honor

en-noun

matron of honor (plural matrons of honor)

The primary woman who assists the bride at a wedding, if this woman is married; a married woman serving in the role of maid of honor.


co-wife

Coordinate term: co-husband

If a co-wife had sought the lives of those three of thine.

1892, Kipling & Balestier, Naulahka, page 247:

In fact, [Ayesha] was more jealous of Khadija, the dead wife, than she was of any of her living co-wives.

1990, Syed A. A. Razwy, Khadija-tul-Kubra (the Wife of the Prophet Muhammed) May Allah be Pleased with Her: A Short Story of Her Life), page 165:

If the senior wife decides to make life unbearable for her co-wife and their husband, she is likely to succeed in forcing the newcomer to leave.

2000, Marjorie Shostak, Nisa, the life and words of a ǃKung woman, page 152:

In other words, polygamous societies differ markedly with regards to allowing kin, especially sisters, to become co-wives. Sororal polygamy is practised in some societies because it is believed to foster greater cohesiveness among co-wives sharing values and norms, whereas it is specifically forbidden in other polygamous societies.

2008, Miriam Koktvedgaard Zeitzen, Polygamy: a cross-cultural analysis, page 32:

In a polygamous marriage, another wife of a woman’s husband.

shemër

in a polygamous marriage, another wife of a woman's husband


co-husband

Coordinate term: co-wife

When younger brother calls [his elder brother's wife] his "co-wife" and reciprocally, when she calls him "co-husband," rights in sexuality are being satirized.

1997, David Lipset, Mangrove man: dialogics of culture in the Sepik estuary, page 72:

The village chief Sambhu, upheld Mahesh’s claim to half of Damodar’s wealth since he was his co-husband

2004, Govindraraj Sulekha, The Co-husband:

In a polyandrous marriage, another husband of a man’s wife.

kunedzo

in a polyandrous marriage, another husband of a man's wife


hotwife

Coordinate term: hothusband

Jeff and Allison secretly live the "hotwife/cuckold" lifestyle.

2015, Carter Saint, Coming Out As a Cuck:

2018 ‘Stag’ men love watching other guys have sex with their wives… but it’s not cuckolding
The Vixen, often known as ‘Hotwife’, has sex with the encouragement of her husband or boyfriend with the Bull (that’s the guy who is servicing her).

(slang) A married female swinger; a wife who has sex with men other than her husband, with the husband's approval.


marriageableness

A woman may have every quality or attribute of marriageableness who menstruates irregularly, or rarely, or even who has never menstruated at all.

1884, The Medical Age, volume 2, page 358:


shotgun marriage

shotgun marriage (plural shotgun marriages)

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From shotgun + marriage; compare shotgun wedding.

Others explained that a forced marriage was likely to end in an early divorce, so that the child would suffer more in a shotgun marriage than if born out of wedlock.

1996, George A. Akerlof et al., “An Analysis of Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing in the United States” (journal article), reproduced in Explorations in Pragmatic Economics: Selected Papers of George A. Akerlof, Oxford University Press (2005), ISBN 978-19-925391-3, page 146

(countable) A marriage beginning with (or resulting from) a shotgun wedding.

(uncountable) Such marriages, or such weddings, taken collectively.


mahr

mahr (countable and uncountable, plural mahrs)

(Islam) A mandatory gift from the groom to the bride upon marriage in Islamic cultures.

مَهْر

a mandatory gift from the groom to the bride upon marriage in Islamic cultures


golden wedding

‘Perhaps you have no golden or silver wedding in England?’
‘I confess I never heard of any thing of the kind,’ said Hamilton...
‘To be fifty years married and to have a golden wedding, is a sort of event in a family.’

1850, Jemima von Tautphoeus, Initials, volume I, page 121:

...in fact the paper, wooden and tin wedding presents are seldom anything but jokes. Crystal is the earliest that is likely to be taken seriously by the gift-bearers. Silver is always serious, and the golden wedding a quite sacred event.

1922, Emily Post, chapter XXII, in Etiquette:

The golden anniversary of a wedding, the 50th anniversary of a marriage.


hornify

en-verb

hornify (third-person singular simple present hornifies, present participle hornifying, simple past and past participle hornified)

hornifies (present singular third-person)
hornifying (participle present)
hornified (participle past)
hornified (past)

My Wife has hornified me.

c. 1608–1613, Nathan Field, John Fletcher, “Four Playes, or Morall Representations, in One”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

(transitive, obsolete) To horn; to cuckold.


marriage certificate

en-noun

marriage certificate (plural marriage certificates)

(law) An official record indicating that two individuals were legally married on the date of the certificate.


groomzilla

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It is unlikely that the groom will turn into Groomzilla, so obsessed by wedding details that he drives even the bride crazy. But it does happen.

2005, Leslie Milk, It's Her Wedding But I'll Cry If I Want To:

He was the one turning into Groomzilla. He was losing it.

2008, Sharon Hanby-Robie, A Simple Wedding: A Faith-Filled Guide to Enjoying a Stress-Free Wedding:

(usually humorous) A demanding and perfectionistic groom (man who is to be married).


marry off

en-verb

marry off (third-person singular simple present marries off, present participle marrying off, simple past and past participle married off)

marries off (present singular third-person)
marrying off (participle present)
married off (participle past)
married off (past)

Mark Warshavsky, the composer of the classic "Oifn Pripitchik" wrote the melody now well-known from the conclusion of the wedding festivities, in which the parents marrying off their last child, sit with garlands on their heads, while family and friends dance around them.

2017, Velvel Pasternak, Behind the Music, Stories, Anecdotes, Articles and Reflections, page 141:

(idiomatic) To successfully arrange the marriage of someone, especially a relative.


confarreation

en-noun

confarreation (countable and uncountable, plural confarreations)

(Ancient Rome) A form of marriage in Ancient Rome that was solemnized with cakes made from far (emmer)

confarreatio

Ancient Roman marriage solemnized with spelt cakes


mari complaisant

mari complaisant (plural maris complaisants)

Unadapted borrowing from French mari complaisant.

ubor

She was reputed to have had many lovers, and Nessim was regarded as a mari complaisant.

“And when Vera wanted to go off with Lord Moyne, he would say, ‘I hope you have fun. God bless you. See you when you get back.’ That's not to say his feelings weren't hurt. He was too weak to say no — a mari complaisant.”

Stephen Quinn, mari complaisant of Blunkett's former lover, Kimberly Quinn, told a colleague of mine that he resented being called rich.

2005 November 6, Nick Cohen, The Guardian:

A husband who tolerates his spouse's adultery.

husband who tolerates his wife's adultery

knoǰ anhavatarmutʻyunə čʻtesnelu tvoġ amusin

կնոջ անհավատարմությունը չտեսնելու տվող ամուսին

muž, zakryvájuščij glazá na nevérnostʹ žený

муж, закрыва́ющий глаза́ на неве́рность жены́


cot-quean

What, shall a husband be afraid of his wife's face? Will she paint it so horribly? We are a king, cotquean, and we will reign in our pleasures, and we will cudgel thee to death if thou find fault with us.

1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster, act 4, scene 4:

(obsolete, derogatory) A female cuckold; a cuckquean.


arranged marriage

en-noun

arranged marriage (countable and uncountable, plural arranged marriages)

The marriage (union) of two people planned by someone other than the two people who are united in it.


sham marriage

marriage of convenience
marriage of convenience

A marriage of convenience conducted by two persons who do not intend to live as a couple, generally for the purpose of gaining some advantage arising from married status. Such marriages are illegal in most countries and both partners must therefore try to deceive the public about the nature of their marriage.


man and wife

I now declare you man and wife.


child bride

Coordinate term: child groom

Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that allow minor girls to be child brides.

With a smile and baksheesh for the little fair-faced girl destined to be the child-bride of some unknown Egyptian

1878, Frank Leslie's Sunday magazine, Volumes 3-4, page 206

Alone in [he]r tent the frightened child-bride [w]aits her husband, who will see her... [sic] ...for the first time.

Ohio, where she had peddled with her parents until she became a child bride to Salem's brother Khalil, in 1896

1993 Alixa Naf, Becoming American, page 142

In this article she discusses the 1992 incident in which a Hyderabadi Muslim father sells his daughter as a child-bride to an Arab named Yahya Mohammed al-Sageih for Rs. 6000.

2008, Hafiza Nilofar Khan, The University of Southern Mississippi, Treatment of a wife's body in the fiction of Indian subcontinental women writers, page 46

A very young bride, usually coerced or pressured into nuptials with a much older man, as practiced in some cultures.


outask

en-verb

outask (third-person singular simple present outasks, present participle outasking, simple past and past participle outasked)

outasks (present singular third-person)
outasking (participle present)
outasked (participle past)
outasked (past)

From out- + ask. Cognate with Old Frisian utaskia (“to outask”), Danish udæske (“to challenge”).

(transitive) To ask or proclaim for the last time.

(transitive) To announce or publish the banns of marriage of (a couple) in church for the third time.


open marriage

en-noun

open marriage (countable and uncountable, plural open marriages)

"Most people have been married more than once, and adultery is universally tolerated. Open marriage would simply legitimize what we already live."

1973 January 8, “The Sexes: Swinging Future”, in Time, archived from the original on 2011-12-18:

"Marriage is only possible for me if it's an open marriage".

1975 March 17, “Suzy Chaffee: The Liberated Beauty”, in Beaver County Times:

Both said they had an open marriage, having sexual relations with others.

2002 August 22, Barbara Whitaker, “Neighbor Guilty of Murder Of Girl, 7, in San Diego”, in New York Times, retrieved 2011-08-05:

A marital relationship in which each partner agrees that the other partner may have sexual relations with other people as he or she sees fit.


bridesman

From bride + -s- + man, by alteration of earlier brideman; compare bridesmaid.

She might be renting a tux, however, as she is willing to have a bridesman.

2008 June 26, Katie Zezima, “Bride-to-Be Takes a Chance on eBay for a Bidding Bridesmaid”, in New York Times:

A male bridesmaid; a man who attends a bride during her wedding ceremony, as part of the wedding party.


same-sex marriage

same-sex marriage (countable and uncountable, plural same-sex marriages)

Thailand’s Constitutional Court yesterday conceded that its objections to same-sex marriage are ideological rather than legal in a statement declaring it “against the natural order.” The comments, included in the court’s full 12-page ruling against a challenge to the charter’s prohibition of same-sex marriage, angered proponents and supporters of marriage equality and has sent #ConstitutionalCourtisSexist trending atop Thai Twitter since last night.

2021 December 3, “LGBTQ couples, families and marriage are ‘against the natural order,’ Thai Constitutional Court rules”, in Coconuts Bangkok, Bangkok: Coconuts Media Limited, retrieved 2021-12-03:

Marriage between two people of the same sex.


traditional marriage

traditional marriage (countable and uncountable, plural traditional marriages)

For the first time in Gallup's tracking of the issue, a majority of Americans (53%) believe same-sex marriage should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages.

2011, Frank Newport/Gallup, For First Time, Majority of Americans Favor Legal Gay Marriage, link:

A heterosexual marriage; a social or legal union between two people of opposite sex.


put horns on

en-verb

put horns on (third-person singular simple present puts horns on, present participle putting horns on, simple past and past participle put horns on)

puts horns on (present singular third-person)
putting horns on (participle present)
put horns on (participle past)
put horns on (past)

Compare Russian наста́вить рога́ (nastávitʹ rogá).

cog

наста́вить рога́

(transitive) To cuckold, to be unfaithful to.


blushing bride

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Originally a reference to a virgin bride who, lacking sexual experience, might be nervous about her wedding night.

My beautiful blushing bride, Sheila here, and I - We have come all the way up here to god’s green country to... Kill you. Clean you. And eat you.

2009, Benjamin Gilton, The Missing Dinner Guests:

Dana Jackson was not your average blushing bride. You see, she went down the aisle on her 100th birthday.

2012, Melissa Locker, “Bride Ties the Knot on Her 100th Birthday”, in Time:


octogamy

From octo- + -gamy. Compare Middle English octogamie.

I regret to say John has never had that pleasure yet; but if the "Honourable" Herbert D'Aulnoy should darken my doors again, I should feel it my duty to communicate certain facts about him to Sir Richard Mayne and Mr. Pollaky, and to ensure his conviction for bigamy, trigamy, quadrigamy, or perhaps octogamy, at the Old Bailey.

1865 March 25, Vere Haldane, “'Would-Be Wives, Beware!': A Caution Founded On Fact”, in Once A Week, page 378:

The best wardmaster in Scutari had eight wives—I mean eight wives alive—at different stations. […] He was tried when he came home at Warwick Assizes for what was euphoniously called bigamy, but was octogamy.

1888, Florence Nightingale, letter to Maude Verney dated 2 February 1888, published in Lynn McDonald, Florence Nightingale: An Introduction to Her Life and Family (2010), page 713

The author devotes almost an entire page of the essay to rewriting [Mary Elizabeth] Braddon's fiction, replacing bigamy with octogamy and inventing a sensation author who, writing between meals, creates three murderous polygamist heroines in one day--including one who, having poisoned twenty-seven lovers, flies off "to sunny Italy ... with the stable boy."

2011, Joyce E. Kelley, "Beating them to the Punch: satirizing sensation from the 1860s comic journal to Braddon's The Doctor's Wife", Victorians: A Journal of Culture and Literature, Spring 2011

The state of having eight spouses simultaneously.


starter marriage

en-noun

starter marriage (plural starter marriages)

A starter marriage is one where the couple marries young and gets divorced before the arrival of the first child—and usually before the arrival of the first wrinkle. Starter marriages are more common among overachievers.

2008, Cooper Lawrence, The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace with Your Inner Overachiever, Guilford, Connecticut: skirt!, →ISBN, page 212:

(informal) A first marriage for an individual or couple that either was short-lived or is expected to be unsuccessful, especially when viewed as serving as preparation for a subsequent marriage.


bridelock

From Middle English brudlak, brudlac (“nuptuals”), from Old English brȳdlāc (“bridal, wedded condition, marriage ceremony”). By surface analysis, bride + -lock.

inh

(obsolete) Marriage; marriage ceremony; nuptials.


sibberidge

(UK dialectal) The banns of marriage, or the act of publishing thereof.


hypogamy

The reverse (hypogamy) is rare because with marriage a woman and her future offspring take on the social position of the husband, and so an upper‐class woman marrying a lower‐class man reduces her position as well as that of her children.

1972 August 27, Sheila K. Johnson, “A woman anthropologist offers a solution to the woman problem”, in The New York Times:

Men like Mr. Lim, according to Government officials, often end up marrying "downward" - hypogamy - after they fail to win a woman of their own educational level.

1988 November 7, Seth Mydans, “Singapore Journal; How to Marry Up, and Avoid the Frogs and Nerds”, in The New York Times:

The seeking of a spouse of lower socioeconomic status or caste than oneself.


nubility

en-noun

nubility (usually uncountable, plural nubilities)

It's certainly no disgrace to have been ripped off by a pretty-faced hustler--who among us has not mistaken nubility for genius?

1993 June 11, Mary Shen Barnidge, “Mean Tears”, in Chicago Reader:

In France, more than half the women who have reached the age of nubility are married; in Ireland, generally speaking, less than a third.

Among the northern clans of the Thonga tribe, in South-Eastern Africa, about Delagoa Bay, when a girl thinks that the time of her nubility is near, she chooses an adoptive mother, perhaps in a neighbouring village.

1913, Sir James George Frazer, Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I.:

Among most modern nations, the civil laws fixing the earliest date of marriage seem to have been made without any reference to physiology, or with the mistaken notion that puberty and nubility are identical.

1881, John Harvey Kellogg, Plain Facts for Old and Young:


familymoon

“We didn't want Conner to feel excluded,” said New Yorker Craig Linden, whose 5-year-old stepson joined the couple for their wedding and honeymoon in Hawaii. “It was a familymoon.”

2001 August 19, Eileen Ogintz, “Encore brides include their children and his in honeymoon plans”, in Ventura County Star:

These familymoons can be a valuable transition time for merging families Brady-Bunch style, and they're a powerful way of conveying to all that life is about to become a joint venture.

2005, Marcy Blum, Laura Fisher Kaiser, Wedding Planning For Dummies, unnumbered page:

Although most families see quality bonding time as important, most are also limited in the amount of financial resources they can devote to a vacation or familymoon.

2005, David Frisbie, Lisa Frisbie, Happily Remarried, page 105:

2007, Travel & Leisure, Volume 37, American Express Publishing, page 92,
Thinking of planning a familymoon or babymoon? Couples celebrating second marriages and honeymooning with kids enjoy the luxuriously spacious suites of the oceanfront ResortQuest Waikiki Beach Tower.

A honeymoon in which the newlywed couple bring along their children.


mail-order bride

mail-order bride (plural mail-order brides)

A woman who is listed in a catalogue to be selected by a man for marriage.


lavender marriage

lavender marriage (plural lavender marriages)

From lavender (“homosexual, gay”) + marriage.

A male-female marriage entered into in the hope of concealing the non-heterosexual sexual orientation of one or both of the spouses.

mariage de lavande

male-female marriage intended to conceal non-heterosexuality


cenogamy

From cen- + -o- + -gamy, from Ancient Greek κοινός (koinós, “common”) + γάμος (gámos, “bond”).

The state of a community which permits promiscuous sexual intercourse among its members, i.e. in which husbands and wives are shared and held in common.


stem family

(anthropology) A family system in which a couple's firstborn child lives with them in the family home, and that child's spouse moves into the home of said in-laws, so that the younger couple's children are raised in the home of their grandparents. Usually, the younger offspring move out upon marriage. The inheritance, depending on the culture, may or may not be the most favorable to the firstborn.


weddingmoon

One day Dean called to ask if we would mind if he married Andrea in Bermuda that May in what is called a "weddingmoon," where marriage ceremony and honeymoon are combined.

2005, Warren A. Cikins, In Search of Middle Ground: Memoirs of a Washington Insider, Devora Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 283:

A combined wedding and honeymoon, with the wedding ceremony taking place at the couple's vacation destination.


bride-to-be

The etiquette of a royal wedding might vary according to the status of those entering into wedlock, but wherever possible it was preferred that a foreign bride-to-be should make the journey to be married, and settled, in England.

2011, Emily Brand, Royal Weddings, Shire Publications, published 2011, →ISBN:


marriage equality

Portions of the ruling reflected the court’s culturally conservative roots, stating that because marriage is only for reproduction, LGBTQ relationships are unnatural because they cannot produce children. “Marriage equality would not only overturn the natural order, but it would also shake the very foundation of society and humanity,” read the ruling.

2021 December 3, “LGBTQ couples, families and marriage are ‘against the natural order,’ Thai Constitutional Court rules”, in Coconuts Bangkok, Bangkok: Coconuts Media Limited, retrieved 2021-12-03:

[…] said that he would vote for a federal marriage amendment if laws already banning marriage equality were to be struck down by federal courts.

2010, Tracy Baim, Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage, page 139:

Equality and equal acceptance (particularly legal acceptance, but also social acceptance) of same-sex in addition to heterosexual marriages.

edzeca egaleco

acceptance of same-sex marriage as well as heterosexual marriage


DOMA

Defense of Marriage Act
w:Defense of Marriage Act

(US politics) Acronym of Defense of Marriage Act.


wood anniversary

wood anniversary (plural wood anniversaries)

wooden anniversary
wooden anniversary#English


wooden anniversary

wooden anniversary (plural wooden anniversaries)

Our fifth anniversary — that's our wood anniversary, isn't, it?

1919, University of Washington, The Washington Newspaper, volume 5 & 6, page 11:

The 5th anniversary of some event, particularly a wedding.


equal marriage

equal marriage (countable and uncountable, plural equal marriages)

The Court heard from civil liberties associations, a group of seven people interested in civil unions, human rights commissions, faith groups supporting and opposed to equal marriage, gay and lesbian equality rights groups, and […]

2010, Malcolm C. Kronby, Canadian Family Law, →ISBN:

Marriage equality; the acceptance of same-sex as well as heterosexual marriages.


couplezilla

> However, I still think a wedding is one of the few times a couple can be
> completely selfish and think of themselves only.
Oh no, COUPLEZILLA!

1999 June 3, Peggy Galbraith, “Re: cake...”, in alt.wedding (Usenet):

You're probably a great relief to work with after some of the couplezillas she's inevitably seen. The last real doozy of a story I heard was the groom who insisted that they MUST have an aisle runner because they were paying $10,000 for the wedding and had to have everything just so.

1999 August 24, Wende A. Feller, “Re: Coordinator Update!”, in alt.wedding (Usenet):

Then, no they're not wrong at all, they're being a couplezilla.
[…]
I say.. Couplezilla go ahead and embrace your zilla-ness. This is the stuff that makes great wedding horror stories...

2000 January 31, Z. Santiago, “Re: Cheif Bridesmaid needs help! (LONG)”, in alt.wedding (Usenet):

(informal, usually humorous) A couple who, in the course of planning their wedding, display difficult, selfish, narcissistic behaviour relating to the event.


weddingzilla

/ˌwɛdɪŋˈzɪlə/

From wedding + -zilla (suffix forming nouns and names suggesting a monster or a thing of extremely large size or great destructiveness) (a back-formation from Godzilla).

suffix

She wasn't in the family gathering to see Sarah's weddingzilla dress burn.

2007 November 6, “alanG”, “Audreh SNUK”, in rec.arts.tv.uk.coronation-st (Usenet):

It can be hard for a man to understand how an otherwise sweet and reasonable woman can go all weddingzilla: "My dress must have a 50-foot train, trimmed with the skins of puppies!"

2012 April 11, Amy Alkon, “Advice goddess”, in Colorado Springs Independent:

At least he's making Weddingzilla-ism slightly more of an equal-opportunity affair.

2013 April 23, Megan Garber, “We Have Ourselves a Groomzilla”, in The Atlantic:

(humorous, often attributively) A person overly concerned with ensuring that a wedding goes exactly as they envision it.


destination wedding

en-noun

destination wedding (plural destination weddings)

A wedding (planned in advance) in a foreign country, usually at a high-end resort, where the couple, the wedding party and their guests stay for about a week, and where all activities related to that wedding take place.


groomsmaid

From groom + -s- + maid, by analogy with groomsman and bridesmaid.

The groom's sister, Brüch Clift of Anchorage, was groomsmaid.

2008 September 10, “Clift, White exchange vows”, in Carroll County Comet:

The groomsmaid dress: I was a groomsmaid — meaning, I stood on the groom’s side in support of my male friend.

2011 March 9, Meredith Goldstein, “Bridesmaid revisited”, in Boston Globe:

Now that I think about it, I also tried the brewery’s East India Pale Ale, while hanging out at the apartment of my friend Michelle, who served as a groomsmaid at the big event, on the afternoon of the wedding.

2011 September 6, Sara Foss, “A wedding at a brewery”, in The Daily Gazette:

A woman who attends a groom during his wedding ceremony, as part of the wedding party.


groomdom

We imagined that this was a ruse on his part, for his neck loved the yoke of groomdom.

1880, Caroline Alicia De Fonblanque, Five weeks in Iceland:

The state, quality, or condition of being a groom; groomhood.


mut'ah

mut'ah (usually uncountable, plural mut'ahs)

Borrowed from Arabic مُتْعَة (mutʕa). Doublet of mutat.

(Islam) Temporary marriage (wedlease) practised by certain Muslim sects, particularly Shias.


wedding march

"Oh, there isn't much danger, as long as I have got breath in my nostrils," said Peik, and took a ram's horn, which he began blowing; and when he had blown a wedding march on it he put the horn to his sister's nostrils and blew life into her again and she rose up as if nothing had been the matter with her.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 197:

The musicians had been quietly singing some familiar Christian songs but then the singing stopped and the music turned into a wedding march as the procession started down the small hallway. First, Sandra, in her yellow bridesmaid dress and carrying a small bouquet of yellow roses […]

2009, Jim Hayden, The Year of God's Promise, page 325:

(music) A slow-tempo march played during a wedding.


misyar

(Islam) A temporary marriage (wedlease), especially in Sunni Islam.


fag marriage

fag marriage (countable and uncountable, plural fag marriages)

“There is the push for fag marriage in this country,” she said. “You’re a freak if you’re not fornicating by the time you’re 14.”

2010 September 28, Becky Young, “Community Rejects 'Message of Hate' at Weaver Memorial”, in Williamsburg Yorktown Daily:

He also suggested a “final solution to the problem of fag marriage” that involved replacing rice/birdseed with bullets/hand grenades at gay weddings (this book may not have gotten the details there quite right).

2011, Roland Boyle, Tea Party Guide to Being a Real American: Arming Yourself Against Godless Liberals, Dirty Socialists, and Sexy Ideas, Sourcebooks, →ISBN:

“I hear they are letting queers get married now. They voted yes on that fag marriage idea, so you should be happy Andy!”

2012, Zack W. Van, Inanimate Heroes, →ISBN:

(vulgar, offensive, derogatory) Same-sex marriage.


ghost marriage

Marriage with a dead person or between dead people.


stand up with

en-verb

stand up with (third-person singular simple present stands up with, present participle standing up with, simple past and past participle stood up with)

stands up with (present singular third-person)
standing up with (participle present)
stood up with (participle past)
stood up with (past)

It was a quiet wedding. . . . Marshall P. Wilder, the humorist, who is a warm personal friend of the bride, stood up with her, and Mr. Cramer, who is connected in an editorial capacity with Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, and Mrs. Cramer, were the only other witnesses.

1891 October 6, “Notable Wedding”, in Lawrence Daily Journal, retrieved 2013-11-26, page 1:

Mrs. Herbert Schmidt, of Hoboken, acted as bridesmaid. . . . Edwin Scheuine stood up with Rudy.

1931 July 9, “Rudy Vallee Weds Faye Webb, Actress”, in Lewiston Daily Sun, retrieved 2013-11-26, page 6:

When Bob and Urania Greene were married two years ago, Mr. Greene, who is Oprah Winfrey’s personal trainer, had Ms. Winfrey serve as his “best woman.” “People are ignoring gender roles,” said Antonia van der Meer, the editor-in-chief of Modern Bride and Elegant Bride. “There are times where it is more appropriate that you chose the person with whom you are closest or the person who you feel is the best possible candidate for standing up with you while you say your vows.”

2007 March 25, Marcelle S. Fischler, “Always a Bridesdude, Never a Bridegroom?”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-11-26:

(transitive, idiomatic) In a wedding ceremony, to serve as best man or as maid of honor or as an official witness for (someone).


minimoon

But weddings are stressful, and it makes sense to take a day or two after saying “I do” to relax and make mad, passionate love (read: sleep in and watch TV). So consider a minimoon: a quick two-night getaway close to home.

2008 January 16, Carolyn Ali, “Minimoons may be short, but they sure are sweet”, in The Georgia Straight:

Rachel Moschke, Editor of Wedding Ideas magazine, said: ‘Most of us worry about saving up for our wedding day, but it seems we’re reluctant to give up the quality time together that a honeymoon offers. A minimoon is the perfect way to start married life, without busting the budget.’

2009 July 1, Jo Tweedy, “After the nanobreak comes the 'minimoon' as newlyweds scrimp on honeymoon holiday”, in Daily Mail:

The couple are yet to go on their honeymoon because of their strict working schedules but did find time for a ‘minimoon’ after tying the knot.

2012 November 22, James Robertson, “Rochelle and Marvin Humes are having a baby: 'We're so excited to start a family'”, in The Mirror, UK:

A brief honeymoon or holiday taken after a wedding.


sindoor

From Sanskrit सिन्दूर (sindūra, “red lead”).

After she’d brushed her hair and twisted it into a knot, she got her sindoor out of the cabinet. It was in a tiny, flat copper container, and the powder was bright red.

2023, Chetna Maroo, Western Lane, Picador, page 27:

A traditional red or orange cosmetic powder from India, usually worn by Hindu women along the parting of the hair as a sign of marriage.


split the sheets

split the sheets (third-person singular simple present splits the sheets, present participle splitting the sheets, simple past and past participle split the sheets)

splits the sheets (present singular third-person)
splitting the sheets (participle present)
split the sheets (participle past)
split the sheets (past)


bar sinister

en-noun

bar sinister (usually uncountable, plural bars sinister)

He was not influenced by sordid considerations. . . . Had she been merely of illegitimate birth, he would have overlooked the bar sinister.

1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter 16, in The House Behind The Cedars:

Parlay's a full-blooded Frenchman. . . . About a hundred miserable Paumotans lived on the island. He married the queen—native fashion. . . . Now before the queen died she gave birth to a girl. . . . She was educated like a princess, and she accepted herself in much the same way. Also, she thought she was all-white, and never dreamed of a bar sinister.

1912, Jack London, chapter 8, in A Son Of The Sun:

James Smithson was the illegitimate son of the first Duke of Northumberland, third creation. His mother was a lineal descendant of Henry VII. Despite so much blue blood, the bar sinister seared James Smithson all his life.

1936 October 26, “Science: Smithsonian's Year”, in Time, retrieved 2014-03-27:

(idiomatic, euphemistic) The state or characteristic of having been born out of wedlock; illegitimacy; bastardy.


spousedom

Walter, yet new in his spousedom, was more amenable than an older hand ; but Rosa had no want of anxiety in this her first dinner-party.

1851 February, “A Little Stimulant — A Temperance Tale”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 2, number 9, page 363:

The marketing of military spousedom was impressively wide-ranging: stickers, teddy bears, ball caps, jewelry, key chains. A bumper sticker stating, “Half my heart is in Iraq” was hotly debated in the online forums as a show of loving tribute or a way to turn your car into stalker bait.

2009, Lily Burana, I Love a Man in Uniform: A Memoir of Love, War, and Other Battles, Hachette Book Group, →ISBN:

John Adams, whose relationship with Abigail Adams is supposed to be a shining example of spousedom, mansplained the need to make husbands the legal masters of wives.

2012 November 1, Lily Rothman, “A Cultural History of Mansplaining”, in The Atlantic:


child groom

Coordinate term: child bride

In the UK, parliaments for children, satirical culture for youngsters, training for teenage fathers, support for suicidal preteens, and refuges for child grooms are all developments which betray a newly recognized maturity and agency in children […]

2011, J. Marshall Beier, The Militarization of Childhood, page 89:

A very young groom (male who is to be married).


walk down the aisle

en-verb

walk down the aisle (third-person singular simple present walks down the aisle, present participle walking down the aisle, simple past and past participle walked down the aisle)

walks down the aisle (present singular third-person)
walking down the aisle (participle present)
walked down the aisle (participle past)
walked down the aisle (past)


love match

He had . . . two daughters, one of whom still flourished in single blessedness, and the other, who was greatly more juvenile, made a love-match with a captain in the Forty-twa, who had no other fortune but his commission and a Highland pedigree.

1816, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 2, in The Antiquary—Volume I:

"And this I can tell you, 'tis not the five villages she marries, nor the Duke, but the man. And 'tis not the fine lady he takes to his heart, but our Clo, and none other, and would have taken her in her smock had she been a beggar wench. 'Tis an honest love-match, that I swear!"

1897, Frances Hodgson Burnett, chapter 27, in His Grace of Osmonde:

It was, beyond doubt, the year's strangest love match. This week in Moscow, Christina Onassis, 27, heir to her late father Aristotle's $500 million shipping, financial and industrial empire, is set to marry a Soviet citizen and Communist Party member.

1978 August 7, “The Heiress and Her Comrade”, in Time, retrieved 2014-06-14:

My second marriage, unlike my first, in which I became pregnant at 19 and married the man, was a love match from the start.

2006 April 16, Sheila Kohler, “Modern Love: This Is Where the Dog Comes In”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-06-14:

A marriage, betrothal, or other romantic relationship which is based on a spontaneous mutual feeling of love by the two individuals in the relationship, as opposed to a relationship based on other reasons or an arranged marriage brokered by parents or by third parties.


penny wedding

"Vera true, vera true—we'll have a' to pay, I doubt, less or mair—a sort of penny-wedding it will prove, where all men contribute to the young folk's maintenance, that they may not have just four bare legs in a bed together."

1822, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 37, in The Fortunes of Nigel:

Penny weddings, or weddings where volunteer guests brought each his or her contribution to the entertainment, instead of its expense being defrayed jointly by the bridegroom and the bride, were still in vogue and still reckoned respectable.

1870 Sept., "Adam and Mally: A story of Scottish farm-lfe," in Eclectic Magazine, p. 345 (Google preview)

"And what's a penny wedding?"
"It's a' kin' o' a custom amo' the fishers. There's some gey puir fowk amon' 's, ye see, an' when a twa o' them merries, the lave o' 's wants to gie them a bit o' a start like. Sae we a' gang to the weddin' an' eats an' drinks plenty, an' pays for a' 'at we hae; and they mak' a guid profit out o' 't, for the things doesna cost them nearhan' sae muckle as we pay."

1875, George MacDonald, chapter 5, in Malcolm:

(Scotland, obsolete, idiomatic) A wedding at which the guests contribute payments to help cover the cost of the event and to benefit the newly-married couple.


quadrigamy

The state of having four spouses simultaneously.


weddedness

The state, quality, or condition of being wed or wedded; matrimony.


save the date

From the verbal phrase, suggesting that recipients should reserve the date in their calendars.

When should save the dates be sent?

An informal notice of the date of an important upcoming event, usually a wedding, sent before a formal invitation.


golden anniversary

en-noun

golden anniversary (plural golden anniversaries)

The party from Königgratz was accompanied by an old married pair, who celebrated their golden anniversary of fifty years' happy marriage on the same occasion.

1837 June, Metropolitan Magazine, p. 174

The 50th anniversary of some event, particularly a wedding.


silver anniversary

silver anniversary (plural silver anniversaries)

The 25th anniversary of some event, particularly a wedding.


mismarriage

mismarriage (countable and uncountable, plural mismarriages)


give one's daughter away

en-verb

give one's daughter away (third-person singular simple present gives one's daughter away, present participle giving one's daughter away, simple past gave one's daughter away, past participle given one's daughter away)

gives one's daughter away (present singular third-person)
giving one's daughter away (participle present)
gave one's daughter away (past)
given one's daughter away (participle past)

(traditional, of a father, during a wedding) To give one's daughter's hand in marriage.


shower tea

I attended recently a shower tea for a young woman getting married.

1983, Australian Senate Hansard, page 3401:

Kim had a shower tea when we got married 'cause he loves food.

1986, Berwyn Lewis, No Children by Choice, page 130:

The lovers prepare for marriage. There's a shower tea and a bucks' party. Then the groom walks out.

1991, J. Haynes, J.F. Archibald, The Bulletin, numbers 5759-5767, page 96:


bottom drawer

(UK) A lady's storage box containing items saved for her wedding or married life.


rehearsal dinner

en-noun

rehearsal dinner (plural rehearsal dinners)

The rehearsal dinner was held at a fancy restaurant.

(US) A formal dinner for the people participating in a wedding ceremony, usually held after the wedding rehearsal on the night before the ceremony itself.


wedding-goer

I tried to turn away and found myself winking some more at the most innocuous wedding-goer I could find: Francine's great-aunt in the front row.

2012, Sloane Crosley, I Was Told There'd Be Cake, →ISBN:


matrimania

Another bride, another June . . . another season for matrimania.

2000 June 4, Ellen Tien, “Bridal Pulse”, in The New York Times:

If it hadn't been for Bonnie's matrimania, in which I was completely complicit, I'm not sure my panic would have been so intense.

2007, Erin Torneo, Valerie Cabrera Krause, The Bridal Wave: A Survival Guide to the Everyone-I-Know-Is-Getting-Married Years, Villard Books, →ISBN, page 10:

The “matrimania” in our culture that has bred over-the-top weddings, renewals of wedding vows, Valentine's Day splurges, and so forth, […]

2013, Carlin Flora, Friendfluence: The Surprising Ways Friends Make Us Who We Are, Doubleday, →ISBN:

Excessive enthusiasm for a wedding or weddings in general.


nikah

nikah (countable and uncountable, plural nikahs)

There are no official statistics on how many Tajiks have married via Skype, but we spoke to five couples who said they performed the Islamic wedding ceremony nikah through the video chat service, which they say is becoming even more common in more the country’s rural areas.

2015 July 29, “The Skype ceremony – the young Tajiks getting married online”, in The Guardian:


agamy

agamy (countable and uncountable, plural agamies)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἄγαμος (ágamos, “unmarried, single (of men)”). From a- (“not”) + -gamy (“marriage”).

bor

Cichlids exhibit monogamy, polygyny, polyandry, and agamy. […] In agamous relationships, there is no bond formed at all. They separate from each other immediately after spawning.

2012, David Oconner, Cichlid Fish: The Fascinationg World of Cichlid Care, David Oc, →ISBN, page 28:

Absence or nonrecognition of marriage, or absence of a pair bond.


maritage

en-noun

maritage (countable and uncountable, plural maritages)

From Medieval Latin marītāgium. Doublet of marriage.

The fine paid by the vassal to the feudal lord for failing to follow his maritage decision.


maritodespotism

From marito-, an apparently otherwise-nonexistent combining form of marital, + despotism.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:maritodespotism.

(very rare, sometimes humorous) Ruthless domination of one spouse by another (often domination of a wife by a husband) in a marriage.


marriage inequality

The state of same-sex couples being unable to legally marry.


anumarana

(historical) The ancient Indian practice of voluntary death by self-immolation by Hindu widows after the death of the husband.


baraat

Borrowed from Hindustani بَرات (barāt) / बरात (barāt), ultimately from Sanskrit वरयात्रा (varayātrā).

‘There must be no lavish display of wealth, no big baraats or bands, exploding of fireworks and that kind of vulgarity.’

2004, Khushwant Singh, Burial at Sea, Penguin, published 2014, page 64:

(South Asia) A wedding procession carried out by the bridegroom in North India, West India, and Pakistan.


weddable

en-adj

weddable (comparative more weddable, superlative most weddable)

more weddable (comparative)
most weddable (superlative)


sheva brachot

From Hebrew שֶׁבַע בְּרָכוֹת (shéva' b'rakhót, literally “seven blessings”).

der

שֶׁבַע בְּרָכוֹת

If at least 10 adults are present, grace after meals culminates with the recitation of the sheva b'rakhot (the seven blessings pronounced during the wedding ceremony) with the blessing over the wine recited last.

2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 172:

the seven blessings recited after grace after meals at a wedding feast, and at festivities during the week after or before the wedding.


handgift

From Middle English *handgift, from Old English handgift (“a gift given by hand; a marriage gift”), equivalent to hand + gift. Compare Dutch handgift, Middle High German hantgift (“handgift”).

cog

Thanks for a Knife Llywelyn, eagle of fine men, fierce in battle, son of the tawny grey man, prince and foster-son of praise, refined, proud, virtuous hawk, is there any better weapon, good is the handgift, than the one you gave me, renowned gift?

1993, Iolo (Goch), Iolo Goch: Poems - Page 42:

Would it not be best to just let life go by now, to treasure her friends and use her handgifts to help others? To become closer to some, and especially, in honor of the only man she would ever love, become closer to his parents?

1994, Karen Harper, The Wings of Morning - Page 103:

[...] Belgian law is rather reluctant to characterise such cases as a handgift, but it is prepared to accept a valid gift in the form of a so-called “indirect gift”.

2011, Wolfgang Faber, Brigitta Lurger, Acquisition and Loss of Ownership of Goods - Page 594:

A gift given directly (i.e. by hand), usually to a newly wedded couple; a wedding gift


koumbaros

Transliteration of Greek κουμπάρος . Doublet of compere.

bor

Greek κουμπάρος

He became Mr. Koutsoftas’s koumbaros, a combined best man and godfather to Mr. Koutsoftas’s children, a role in the Greek Orthodox church that is the equivalent of family.

2009 March 14, Anne Barnard, “Furniture Chain’s Boast: Made in America. In Queens, in Fact.”, in New York Times:

The person who, during a Greek Orthodox wedding, exchanges the crowns over the couples heads (and has other related roles)


wedlease

en-verb

wedlease (third-person singular simple present wedleases, present participle wedleasing, simple past and past participle wedleased)

wedleases (present singular third-person)
wedleasing (participle present)
wedleased (participle past)
wedleased (past)

From wed + lease, introduced by a 2013 opinion piece in The Washington Post.


supercouple

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-supercouple.wav

A celebrity couple who intrigue and fascinate the public.


sehra

(Islam) A prothalamion sung at a Muslim wedding in praise of the groom.


sigheh

en-noun

sigheh (countable and uncountable, plural sighehs)

Borrowed from Iranian Persian صیغه (siğe), from Classical Persian صیغه (sīğa), from Arabic صِيغَة (ṣīḡa).

der

Arabic صِيغَة (ṣīḡa)


bridal carry

Traditionally this was how a newly married man would carry his bride over the threshold of their home.

A means of carrying a person, with one's arms supporting their back and legs in front of one's own body.


golden jubilee

Many Days of Feasting and Jollity were spent in the Celebration of this golden Jubilee.

1752, W. Goodall, Adventures of Capain Greenland, volume II, page 53:

The golden anniversary of a coronation, the 50th anniversary of a monarch's rule.

The true Golden Jubilee-year of the Marriage of the Lamb ariseth up among them.

1654, J. Böhme, translated by John Ellistone, Mysterium Magnum, page 280:

In Germany... a married couple, when celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage-day, are said to keep their golden jubilee; but on the twenty-fifth anniversary they have credit only for a silver jubilee.

1853, Thomas de Quincey, “Autobiographical Sketches”, in Selections Grave and Gay, volume I, page 133:

golden anniversary
golden anniversary#English

(uncommon) Synonym of golden anniversary more generally.


wedding day

... both Mr. and Mrs. Giblett returned it , and came to a party which we had at our house , according to annual custom , for the purpose of celebrating our Wedding day[…]

1816, George HARROWER, The Refuter Refuted: Or, a Reply to Mr. Giblett's Pamphlet; Entitled, A Refutation of the Calumnies of G. Harrower, Etc, page 40:

... celebrating our wedding-day on the 23rd, I spent it very pleasantly. It was the thirty-fifth anniversary, and, although my life is hard at times, I thank God for it for we have stayed blameless towards each other[…]

1897, Sofʹi︠a︡ Andreevna Tolstai︠a︡, The Countess Tolstoy's Later Diary, 1891-1897, London : V. Gollancz:


big day

Any day on which something significant or momentous happens.

suuri päivä

any day on which something significant happens


shaadi

Borrowed from Hindustani शादी / شادی (śādī), from Persian شادی (šâdi), from Old Persian shiyâti.

After my shaadi, I packed away those times. My duty was to my husband—and my three boys, also.

2012, Tarquin Hall, The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken: A Vish Puri Mystery, page 234:


intramarry

en-verb

intramarry (third-person singular simple present intramarries, present participle intramarrying, simple past and past participle intramarried)

intramarries (present singular third-person)
intramarrying (participle present)
intramarried (participle past)
intramarried (past)

One is that even though the probabilities for intramarriage within groups depend upon their representation in a population, most intramarry at a much higher rate than would be expected by chance.

1983, Peter S. Li, B. Singh Bolaria, Racial Minorities in Multicultural Canada, page 98:

On the other hand, Bugelski (1961) found that the 1960 residents of Buffalo with Polish or Italian names, when compared to the 1930 residents, were intramarrying at a declining rate.

1985, GA Cretser, JJ LEON, “RACIAL, RELIGIOUS, AND NATIONAL ORIGIN INTERMARRIAGE IN THE US: REVIEW OF SELECTED THEORY, METHOD, AND RESEARCH”, in International journal of sociology of the family:

As for educational achievement, there was virtually no difference in that area between the interracially married and the intramarried Korean American women and spouses.

1997, Gin Yong Pang, Asian American Intermarriage and the Language of Assimilation, page 81:

To marry a member of the same group, social stratum, or religion.


marriage vow

One of the solemn promises made by a couple to each other, usually at their wedding.


broose

(Scotland, historical) A race from the church to the bridegroom's house, part of wedding festivities.


forbidden degree

en-noun

forbidden degree (plural forbidden degrees)

Any of the degrees of consanguinity and affinity within which people are not permitted to marry.


cyberbride

A mail-order bride procured via the Internet.


Levitical degree

Levitical degree (plural Levitical degrees)

(Christianity) Any of the degrees of kindred who are forbidden to marry each other according to Leviticus xviii. 6-18 in the Bible.


legal separation

legal separation (countable and uncountable, plural legal separations)

(law) A legal arrangement in which a married couple live in separate homes while remaining legally married.


marry money

en-verb

marry money (third-person singular simple present marries money, present participle marrying money, simple past and past participle married money)

marries money (present singular third-person)
marrying money (participle present)
married money (participle past)
married money (past)


agunah

en-noun

agunah (plural agunahs or agunot or agunoth)

agunahs (plural)
agunot (plural)
agunoth (plural)

Borrowed from Hebrew עגונה (“chained woman”).

A woman may become an agunah either through her husband's accidental disappearance or through his willful desertion, although accidental disappearance constitutes the main source of difficulty.

1986, Menachem M. Brayer, The Jewish Woman in Rabbinic Literature, page 187:

The problem of the agunah, the woman (or man) who is chained to a marriage and unable to free herself from this marriage, is not a new one.

2001, Michael J. Broyde, Marriage, Divorce, and the Abandoned Wife in Jewish Law:

Our Master could see the agony of his little relative who was not yet fifteen and was already an agunah. He put aside all his civic affairs and obligations and even his regular lectures on Maimonides and Alfasi and began to look into the matter of freeing this agunah.

2014, S. Y. Agnon, The Parable and Its Lesson: A Novella, pages 10–11:

A Jewish woman who is trapped in a marriage from which she cannot escape, either because her husband has disappeared or because he will not grant her a gett.


special licence

special licence (plural special licences)

Coordinate term: common licence

(UK, historical) A marriage licence, granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury or his officials, permitting the marriage of two specified persons without banns, and at a place and time other than those prescribed by law.


bridesmatron

From bride + -s- + matron, by analogy with bridesmaid and maid of honor, matron of honor.

In the celebrated Aldobrandini fresco-painting, found in the baths of Titus, the bride is seated veiled on a bed, with the pronuba or bridesmatron near her, whilst the bridegroom sits at the foot of the bed.

1854, Erotica. The poems of Catullus and Tibullus, and the Vigil of Venus, a prose tr. with notes, by W.K. Kelly. To which are added the metrical versions of Lamb and Grainger, and a selection of versions by other writers, page 49:

The banquet ended, the bride was escorted to the nuptial couch (Lectus genialis) by Pronubae, bridesmatrons, who differed from the bridesmaids of modern times only in the respect that they were married ladies who had been united to only one husband (Univirae).

1867, The Poems of Valerius Catullus, page 233:

Sallie Adele Pendleton, the maid of honor wore pink satin covered with georgette, and the bridesmatrons, Mrs. Leo Gatlin and Mrs. Wilbur Groom both wore gowns of pink georgette, all carrying bouquets of Columbia roses in the light and darker shades.

1920, The Independent, volume 43, page 6:

A badly defaced panel shows a Roman marriage ceremony (H. 19% in. [49.2 cm.]). The contracting couple are clasping their right hands, while the officiating bridesmatron stands behind them with her hands on their shoulders.

1924, The Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, volume 19, page 241:

Lois Gill, B K, wore an enchanting bridal gown and Mrs. Charles McConville (Barbara Reifel), B K, and Diane Lancaster, B K, were bridesmatron and bridesmaid.

Mrs. Bobby Pechal of Temple was bridesmatron, Miss Annette Pyle of Houston served as bridesmaid.

But Elagabalus solemnly went through a form of marriage with Zoticus and insisted that someone should act as “bridesmaid or bridesmatron.”

1958, The Caesars: Might and Madness, page 240:

Mrs. Dean Webb was bridesmatron and Harold Klusman was best man.

Huey and her cousin Terry Kwong were bridesmatron and bridesmaid respectively.

Miss Helen Hale, sister of the bride, served as maid of honor, while Miss Ann Dougan, daughter of Chief Claim Agent J. W. Dougan, was the bridesmaid and Mrs. Andrew Hurst of Roanoke, was the bridesmatron.

1970, Norfolk and Western Magazine, page 297:

Attending the bride in gowns of pastel green trimmed with white daisies were Mrs. Patricia Parks as Matron of Honor and Judy Williamson and Karen Allbert, sisters of the bride, as bridesmatrons.

[…] F. Meikle and the groom’s cousin, Miss Bonnie Robertson, were bridesmatron and bridesmaid.

1973, Lenna Gowdey, Our Sire's Monument: The Merrithews of America, page III:

The bridesmaid, Miss Joan Spellman of Denton, and bridesmatron , Mrs. Karl Linke, Jr., wore gowns of sea green and amber.

1982, Ancestry and Descendants of Johann Dirk Eilers, 1815-1885, Pioneer Settler, Johnson County, Nebraska, page 78:

Their good friends Maurice and Lora Dell Freed served as best man and bridesmatron.

1983, Houder-Westcott Proud Connections, page 304:

The bridesmaid, Lois Anderson, sister of the bride, and bridesmatron, Mrs. Tom Latter, Jr., wore dresses styled like that of the maid of honor, but were a darker shade of blue.

1984, Marilyn Macklin, The Damgaard Family Album, page 121:

Wearing alike costumes of holiday red silk taffeta the attendants were Mrs. Donald Lind (Pat Stafford), the matron of honor; Mrs. Ronald Green (Gretchen Teal), the bridesmatron; bridesmaids Miss Carolyn Schimmel, Miss Marilyn Mousel of McCook and Sherrill Saylor, who was the sister's junior bridesmaid.

1985, John Galen Saylor, Helen Smith Saylor, A Smith Lineage: A Brief History and Genealogical Record of One Line of Descendants of Robert Smith, 1623-1985, page 282:

Bridesmatron was Shannon Packer. Bridesmaids were Barbara Bremer and Cindy Wilson.

1991, Association of Philippe Du Trieux Descendants Newsletter, page 12:

Bridesmatrons were Teresa Sessions, the groom’s twin sister, Eau Claire, and Kathy McCourt, the bride's sister-in-law, of Portland.

1994, The American Descendants of Henry Luce of Martha's Vineyard, volume 4:

Bridesmatron was Christa Wells Campbell from West Palm Beach in Florida and bridesmaid was Setsumi Togawa from Nashville in Tennessee.

1996, Journal of the Clan Campbell Society, page 35:

Miss Beverly Durbin of Kewanee, and Mrs. Paul Grieve of Toulon, were the bridesmaid and bridesmatron.

1998, Virginia M. Heaton Horton, Nicholas Blust/Von Blust from Baden, Baden, Germany to Freeport, IL, 1827-1998, page 75:

Out in the driveway, Tova smoothed the cleaner’s plastic over the sleeves of her green bridesmatron’s dress, the Tova Zissie dress.

2003 January 16, Risa Miller, Welcome to Heavenly Heights: A Novel; republished United States: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2014 July 8, →ISBN:


bridesmaiden

[…]; and so warmly did he share the partiality of Lady Mary and Lady Jemima for the gentle recluse, whom he persisted in calling “la belle au bois dormant,” that, when informed that though the funeral baked meats of the late Earl were not to furnish forth the marriage-table of his successor, the bombazine of the two noble spinsters was, in a decent time, to give place to bridesmaiden white, he was unable to resist a mild “hurrah!”

1855, Catherine Grace F. Gore, Mammon; or, The hardships of an heiress, volume 2, Hurst and Blackett, page 45:

And when a little bridesmaiden, uncommonly like you, / Comes into church so trippingly, all dress’d in white and blue, / You’ll discover, as you reach the middle aisle, / Why they linger’d, linger’d, linger’d at the stile.

“But it will be a deception,” urged Mòr. “I shall have to appear as chief bridesmaiden, whilst I am a married woman.”

1880, Agnes Smith Lewis, The Brides of Ardmore: A Story of Irish Life, page 258:

The Night wore all her starry gems of pride, / To be bridesmaiden to that peerless bride;

1885, Edwin Arnold, The Secret of Death: From the Sanskrit with Some Collected Poems, page 58:

There were errands to be done, he said, but as these “errands” always took him over to the little island of Urk, where lived a certain pretty Olla Tronk, who was Jacqueline’s great friend and her chosen bridesmaiden, the sisters naturally teased him a good deal about them.

1889, Susan Coolidge, Just Sixteen; republished Germany: Outlook Verlag, 2018, →ISBN, page 147:

That night, therefore, I told my cousin of my plans, and she greatly astonished and dismayed me by saying that she, too, would go with me and be bridesmaiden.

1896, The Primitive Methodist Magazine, volume 77, page 329:

And now, after all, here I had been married with ne’er a bridesmaiden at all!

1896, The Strand Magazine, volume 11, page 44:

Then turning to Mrs. Mummer, “And you smiling at her. Think you I want a bridesmaiden with a red nose?”

1915, Emilie Benson Knipe, Alden Knipe, Peg O' the Ring: A Maid of Denewood, Century Company, page 23:

I s’pose when we’re married you’ll have to, because I promised you you could be bridesmaiden.

1915, The Mount Holyoke, volume 24, page 344:

None other than Sally shall be my chief bridesmaiden, and none other than your dear self shall deck me for my wedding.

1927, St. Nicholas Magazine, volume 54, page 1025:

Young people of Sweden confess that they like moral, they follow the norm, they concentrate on education that pays and they want to marry in church with wedding gown, dress-coat and bridesmaidens.

1992 February 19, Marcus Gustavsson, “Re: systemet (was a whole bunch a things)”, in soc.culture.nordic (Usenet), message-ID <9288@chalmers.se>:

The bridesmaiden is 12 years old, and has yet to decide if she would rather sit with the bridal party or with her parents (we gave her that choice, and she's letting us know soon).

1996 May 29, Kelley Teahen, “wedding party spouses ‹ where to seat”, in alt.wedding (Usenet), message-ID <31ACAAD7.75BD@lfpress.com>:

Just tell your aunt & cousin that a bridesmaid should be between the ages of x and y - so the cousin could either be a flower girl, junior bridesmaid or bridesmaiden (as Megan/NutmegGA would say!).

1996 July 19, kellie whitehurst, “Re: Bridesmaids dilemma”, in soc.couples.wedding (Usenet), message-ID <4sp76g$8lm@qualcomm.com>:

And when the bridesmaidens had dressed her for bed / I stepped in amongst them and kissed the bride / And wished that I could have been laid by her side / And by that means I'd got me the favour.

1998 September 3, Dyrath, “Re: Sharing songs”, in alt.fan.dragons (Usenet), message-ID <3232.550T522T11922346@mail.telepac.pt>:

I wore my best cream dress and traveled in the coach accompanied by Lily, my bridesmaiden, and my soon-to-be new mama and papa.

2017 January 3, Jacey Bedford, Silverwolf, DAW Books, →ISBN:


wedding shirt

"I have got a very fine shirt, which I am going to use for my wedding shirt; but there are three tallow stains on it which I want washed out; and I have made a vow that I will not take any other woman for a wife than the one who is able to do that; if she cannot do that, she is not worth having," said the prince.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 240:

An especially fine shirt worn at a wedding, by either bride or groom.


kallah

What if women make their own zimmun at a gathering during the week following a wedding. Can the kalla be part of the minyan?

2008 February 25, yaco...@aol.com, “New guide for halachic and egalitarian minyan”, in soc.culture.jewish.moderated (Usenet):


microwedding

A wedding that has very few guests and little or no formality


ask for someone's hand in marriage

en-verb

ask for someone's hand in marriage (third-person singular simple present asks for someone's hand in marriage, present participle asking for someone's hand in marriage, simple past and past participle asked for someone's hand in marriage)

asks for someone's hand in marriage (present singular third-person)
asking for someone's hand in marriage (participle present)
asked for someone's hand in marriage (participle past)
asked for someone's hand in marriage (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-ask for someone's hand in marriage.wav


kiddushin

From Jewish Babylonian Aramaic קידושין (literally “sanctifications”), plural of קידוש. Syntactically equivalent to, but differs in meaning from, Hebrew קִדּוּשִׁים.

cog

Hebrew קִדּוּשִׁים

Just as Kiddushin takes place when the groom puts a ring on his bride's finger, so we, too, wind a strap around our finger and are sanctified unto the Holy One, blessed be He.

1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 218:

(Judaism) An engagement (promise to marry) between a man and a woman, made by themselves or by relatives.


trans widow

When I began my public life as a transwidow, I knew who knew by the curious or pitying stares we got.

2012, Christine Benvenuto, Sex Changes: A Memoir of Marriage, Gender, and Moving On, unnumbered page:

Tinsel now writes about trans widows for feminist websites, and publishes their stories online under pseudonyms.

2021, Helen Joyce, Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, unnumbered page:

What the experiences of 'trans widows' of late-transitioning trans women are actually like, and what their own political needs are.

2021, Kathleen Stock, Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism, unnumbered page:

(gender-critical slang, offensive) A cis woman who feels her marriage ended or is at risk of ending due to her spouse coming out as a trans woman.


Mexican divorce

en-noun

Mexican divorce (plural Mexican divorces)

(law, historical, sociology) An easier, quicker, and less expensive form of divorce than a divorce in most US states, sought by some Americans.


diamond wedding

diamond wedding (plural diamond weddings)

(uncommon) The diamond anniversary of a wedding, originally the 75th anniversary of a marriage but now often the 60th instead.


diamond anniversary

diamond anniversary (plural diamond anniversaries)

The 75th anniversary of some event, particularly a wedding.

The 60th anniversary of some event, particularly a wedding.


ruby anniversary

ruby anniversary (plural ruby anniversaries)

(uncommon) The 40th anniversary of some event, particularly a wedding.


platinum anniversary

platinum anniversary (plural platinum anniversaries)

The 70th anniversary of some event, particularly a wedding.


paper anniversary

paper anniversary (plural paper anniversaries)

The 1st anniversary of some event, particularly a wedding.


tna'im

Borrowed from Hebrew תְּנָאִים, plural of תְּנַאי (“condition, term”).

The tna'im contained guarantees of sufficient substance that the couple's future might now be seen as entirely settled.

2000 February 1, Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Society at the End of the Middle Ages, Syracuse University Press, →ISBN, page 115:

Small-town rabbis, therefore, sometimes lived in conditions of poverty, despite their right to supplement their income with payments for drawing up tnaim (for engaged couples) and marriage contracts...

2000, Dov Levin, The Litvaks: A Short History of the Jews in Lithuania, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page 59:

After the tna'im (nuptial agreement) is witnessed, the mothers of the bride and groom hold and break a plate, and the bridegroom shatters a glass at the end of the wedding ceremony.

2017, Velvel Pasternak, Behind the Music, Stories, Anecdotes, Articles and Reflections, page 197:

(Judaism) An informal document containing the terms and expectations for a betrothed couple.


matelotage

A social practice of same-sex civil union among seafarers in the 17th and 18th centuries.


married name

The name a person (especially, in many cultures, a woman) takes upon marriage


halitzah

bor

Hebrew חֲלִיצָה

Halitzah carries with it the implication of shame on the male who by refusing to marry his sister-in-law is guilty of not fulfilling his obligation to his dead brother and his dead brother's estate.

1995 January 15, AB...@aol.com, “Levirate Marriage”, in soc.genealogy.jewish (Usenet):

To discourage sexual attraction between brothers and sisters-in-law, later Jewish law expressed a clear preference for ḥalitzah (the ritual of the sandal) rather than levirate marriage.

2001, David L. Lieber, Jules Harlow, Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, page 1134:

(Judaism) A rite by which a widow absolves herself of the duty of levirate marriage.


child marriage

en-noun

child marriage (countable and uncountable, plural child marriages)

The marriage or cohabitation between a minor and an adult or another minor.


bachelorx party

bachelorx party (plural bachelorx parties)

"Replacing 'bachelor/ette' with 'bachelorx' welcomes the growing number of straight folks who aren't into the outdated idea surrounding these get togethers as their 'last night of freedom,'" Blattel says. "With that attitude, it's no shock that gendered bachelorx parties are seen as the last chance for fun."

2019 August 29, Louis Baragona, “What's a Bachelorx Party? The Binary-Breaking Way to Celebrate”, in The Knot:

(neologism) A party held for a couple about to be married; a bachelorette party or bachelor party open to all guests, rather than those of a specific gender.


bachelorx

From bachelor + -x (“used to replace a gendered suffix”).

suffix

"You can celebrate a bachelorx any way you want," Blattel says. "Society historically hasn't made space for queer folks, and neither has the wedding industry."


red wedding

The first sense derives from red as an adjective meaning "associated with or supportive of communism." The second sense derives from The Red Wedding scene in A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin.

As the church sought to make these events significant with its ceremonies, so did the Communists with their “Red weddings,” “Red funerals” and “Red christenings.”

1942 October, Albert Rhys Williams, “Religion in the USSR”, in Soviet Russia Today, page 15:

They celebrated “red weddings” at factories, bride and groom standing before a piece of machinery and pledging their loyalty first to the communist state, then to each other.

1994, Woodford McClellan, Russia: The Soviet Period and After, page 77:

Soon "Red weddings" replaced church weddings for dedicated Communists.

1998, Ronald Grigor Suny, The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States, page 186:

(dated, communism) A wedding ceremony in the Soviet Union in which the couple pledged loyalty to the state or communism in addition to reciting marriage vows.


divorced guy energy

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-divorced guy energy.wav

Adapted from big divorce energy with reference to the stereotype of men reacting to divorce more negatively than women.

Elon Musk shot off a car into a void, a reeking-of-divorced-guy-energy Jeff Bezos recently announced he was into space colonies, and now NASA is planning on letting private companies sell extremely expensive tickets to the International Space Station.

2019 June 7, Harry Cheadle, “A Few Ideas for Those Rich People Who Have More Money Than They Can Spend”, in Vice:

On this chaotic, overstuffed record, West’s divorced-guy energy cannot hide his declining artistry.

2021 August 31, Elliot Hoste, “Kanye West enters his dad-rap era with new album Donda”, in New Statesman:

The Democrats’ Senate hopeful exudes a profound melancholy

2022, Cockburn, "Tim Ryan has big ‘divorced guy’ energy", The Spectator, 1 November 2022 (used in title only)

(slang, derogatory) A psychological state stereotypically characteristic of a recently-divorced man, often conceptualized as being pathetically arrogant or tryhard while also filled with anger, resentment, or melancholy.


big divorce energy

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-big divorce energy.wav

Coined as a play on big dick energy (“unassuming self-confidence”).

The longer you stare at an image like that one — and I don’t recommend it — the clearer this paradox becomes. It’s not that Bezos seems like an odd, wealthy bachelor who would never get hitched; it’s that for a couple of years now, he’s exuded what can only be termed “Big Divorce Energy.”
It’s confusing to find out he’s headed for splitsville when he strikes you as a dude who already has the first marriage in his rearview mirror. The updated clothes, the clean-shaven dome, the ripped revenge bod: “powerful divorced guy vibes,” as the Outline‘s Brandy Jensen put it.

2019 January 10, Miles Klee, “2019 Will Be The Year Of Big Divorce Energy”, in Mel Magazine:

Alvita, played with big divorce energy by an intoxicating Clare Perkins, swaggers around in a tight scarlet dress that – to use a phrase of my mother’s – she “falls out of” carefreely. Her voice is gravelly and feels like it could go at any moment, but not before she gives her husbands an earful, summoning each one for a bit of public humiliation. One is outed as a non-starter in the sheets, another as a fan of Jordan Peterson. Eek. The message is one of sex-positivity: Alvita has no time for “slut shamers” and “uptight churchy men” (Chaucer’s sermonising priests). She wants power and bodily autonomy; she wants – quite explicitly – to be satisfied.

2021 November 22, Katherine Cowles, “Zadie Smith’s stage debut is a filthy, feminist reworking of Chaucer”, in New Statesman:

According to one person, Brady’s photo was giving off “big divorce energy,” while another person said: “One of the most divorced men of all time.”

2023 February 6, Chelsea Ritschel, “Tom Brady divides fans after posting shirtless mirror selfie in his boxers to complete bet: ‘Get a job’”, in The Independent:

(slang, often derogatory) A psychological state stereotypically characteristic of a recently-divorced person.


divorced energy

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-divorced energy.wav

My fear isn’t that [Laurence] Fox will be mayor of London: it’s that trying to be mayor of London will make more people aware of him, and, long story short, in five years’ time Commander Fox will change the national anthem to one of his hoary folksongs, and we’ll all have to endure a 40-year reign of him conveying his profoundly, almost medically divorced energy through a series of croakingly posh national addresses.

2021 April 29, Joel Golby, “Two YouTubers, Count Binface and a man who drank his own urine. Who gets your vote as London mayor?”, in The Guardian:

Inevitable, really, that a song called “I Drink Wine” would land in the top flight of a “divorced energy” list, but it’s not just the title that gets this one here. This mid-tempo piano track has a “getting up to sing in a bar on a night out that the girlies have brought you on to stop you crying into a Pot Noodle for the fourth night in a row” vibe, and when I hear her singing it I imagine her wearing a plaid shirt and sploshing a glass of Pinot about like Connie Britton in Friday Night Lights. Which is a good aesthetic, really.

2021 November 19, Laura O'Neill, “The Songs on Adele’s ‘30’, Ranked By How Divorced They Sound”, in Vice:

Why, some wondered on Twitter, did Mr. Musk have four open cans of caffeine-free Diet Coke next to his pillow? What was up with the image of George Washington crossing the Delaware River? Were either of the two guns he had on display real? (Observers said they looked like non-firing replicas—one of Washington’s own, the other from the videogame “Deus Ex: Human Revolution”—though Mr. Musk has not corroborated their observations.) The internet was quick to quip about the chaotic display and the “divorced energy” the items evoked.

2022 December 1, Lane Florsheim, “From Elon Musk to Drake, Celebrity Nightstand Photos Are Causing a Stir”, in The Wall Street Journal:

big divorce energy
big divorce energy#English

(slang, often derogatory) Synonym of big divorce energy.


mia noi

Many men in Thailand, both rich and poor, have a ‘mia noi’. A ‘mia noi’, roughly translated, means ‘minor wife’ or mistress and has been common in Thai culture for centuries. Even in modern day Thailand, many Thai men will have a mia yai, a major wife (the main wife) and then a mia noi.

2011 June 22, “The Mia Noi or Minor Wife in Thailand: Yes, Thai Men Do Have a Mistress”, in Tasty Thailand:

(Thailand) minor wife; secondary wife; wife of inferior rank; concubine, mistress


widow inheritance

A practice whereby a widow is required to marry a male relative of her late husband, often his brother


widow cleansing

A group of women in western Kenya is fighting "widow-cleansing", a traditional ritual practiced by Luo ethnic communities in some of the poorer, more rural areas of the country.

2017 December 6, “Kenya widows fight sexual 'cleansing' practise”, in BBC News:

The practices of widow cleansing, as well as widow inheritance, pose a serious risk of spreading HIV/AIDS to individuals and among the wider community.

2019 May 23, Roseline Orwa, “Kenya: education, stigma and widow cleansing”, in LSE blog:

(Africa) A tradition that requires widowed women to have sexual intercourse as a form of ritual purification

Sexual rites of passage#Sexual cleansing of widows


mangagement ring

en-noun

mangagement ring (plural mangagement rings)

Most men, jewelers find, move their first ring to their right hand in lieu of the stacking that is traditional for most women. Others may simply allow the mangagement ring to play both roles and have it polished up for the big day.

2014 February 14, Samantha Zabell, “The Rise of the Man-gagement Ring”, in The Atlantic:

“As a feminist I actually quite like the idea of mangagement rings, as otherwise it's like we are property of men with the ring ‘branding’ us, while they are free to skip around appearing unengaged,” 30-year-old Helen explained to The Independent.

2017 August 30, Rachel Hosie, “Why millennial men are wearing engagement rings”, in The Independent:

(neologism) An engagement ring worn by a man.


hothusband

Compound of hot + husband, modelled on earlier hotwife.

Coordinate term: hotwife

Josh and Sarah have been living the hothusband/cuckquean lifestyle since 2012.

(slang) A husband who has sex with women other than his wife, with the wife's approval.


brokeback marriage

brokeback marriage (plural brokeback marriages)

An opposite-sex marriage in which one partner, typically the man, is secretly homosexual.


spiritual wifery

It seems he knew nothing of spiritual wifery before he came here. I suggested to him that, after such a discourse from Brigham, he was in duty bound to take two or three wives, at least.

1855 September, [Cornelia Ferris], “Life Among the Mormons”, in Putnam’s Monthly Magazine […], volume 6, number 33, page 265:

In it he stated his conviction that Bennett had not taught polygamy or spiritual wifery, and his belief that the church leaders at Voree were set “like flint” against spiritual wifery in every form.

1930, Milo Milton Quaife, The Kingdom of Saint James: A Narrative of the Mormons, page 97:

It is more than likely that the Rhode Island law against breaches of marriage covenants was a direct response to the rapid spread of spiritual wifery in this period.

1974, William G. McLoughlin, “Free Love, Immortalism, and Perfectionism in Cumberland, Rhode Island, 1748–1768”, in Rhode Island History, volume 33, page 70:

(chiefly Mormonism, often derogatory) Polygyny; plural marriage.


minimony

Blend of mini + ceremony. Popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.


covidivorce

Couples whose marriages are fraying under the pressures of self-isolation could be heading for a "covidivorce."

2020 March 27, Dan Bilefsky, Ceylan Yeginsu, “Of ’Covidivorces’ and ’Coronababies’: Life During a Lockdown”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-01:

Frankly, Type 1s and 2s are both fine — whatever works for you. But if you're a Type 1 and your spouse Type 2, it could be a reason this lockdown will end with covidivorces.

2020 April 11, Josh Freed, “Josh Freed: Five things we're confused about protecting ourselves from COVID-19”, in Montreal Gazette, Montreal, Que.: Postmedia Network Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-01-18:

Now, as governments around the world loosen their restrictions, divorce lawyers prepare for a swift rise in demand for the dreaded covidivorce.

2020 July 26, Christelle McKillen, “Love in the time of corona”, in RTL Today, archived from the original on 2024-05-16:

"Darling I think we have played a part in our first covidivorce," said La Contessa from her familiar position at the telescope under the orange tree.

2021 September 10, Matthew Benns, “We're all in this together: A coronavirus novel”, in The Daily Telegraph, archived from the original on 2023-06-10:

(neologism) A divorce obtained during the COVID-19 pandemic.


RFMA

Respect for Marriage Act
w:Respect for Marriage Act

(US politics) Initialism of Respect for Marriage Act.


aufruf

Borrowed from Yiddish אויפֿרוף (oyfruf, “summoning”), with the spelling influenced by German Aufruf.

bor+

My Hebrew is horrible, but my Haftarah trope's pretty good. :-) My father-in-law taught me the haftarah trope for my aufruf; that was my first one ever. I just did the haftarah yesterday (my excuse being my wife's birthday), and I'll use my birthday in a couple of months as my excuse for doing a third.

2003 May 25, Tim Meushaw, “Shabbat debut”, in soc.culture.jewish.moderated (Usenet):

At an aufruf I was at a few months ago, the groom's uncle did Adon Olam to the tune of "Rock Around The Clock". It worked amazingly well - it sounded like a one-man band on the bimah!

2003 October 10, Eliyahu Rooff, “Who shall live and who shall die, tra-la-la-la-la!”, in soc.culture.jewish.moderated (Usenet):

(Judaism) An aliyah (Torah reading) made by the bridegroom, typically on the Shabbat before the wedding; a gathering at which this occurs.


chatan

"So, who is the chosson," she asked. Her father told her the name, but of course she had no idea who he was or what he looked like. She asked if she could see him. "Of course you'll see him! You're going to marry him, and you'll see him for 120 years."

2002 May 22, R, “Dating a midrashh”, in soc.culture.jewish.moderated (Usenet):

Another potential reason for leniency is the basic requirement of weddings that the ring must belong to the chatan (Shulchan Aruch E.H. 28). In fact, mesadrei kiddushin verify with the chatan that he owns the ring and did not simply borrow it. If the chatan forgot to bring the wedding ring, the mesader kiddushin will ensure that the "lender" of a replacement ring transfers the title of the ring to the chatan with proper kinyanim (halachic mechanisms of conveyance).

2008, Chaim Jachter, Ezra Fraser, Gray Matter: Volume 3, Ian Richmond, →ISBN, page 116:

Yesterday I traveled from Chicago to New Jersey for the day to attend an afternoon wedding at a place called the Venetian in Garfield New Jersey. The Chatan was the son of friends of mine.

2013 October 7, David Makowsky, “Wedding food”, in soc.culture.jewish.moderated (Usenet):


chasseneh

/xɑːtuːˈnɑː/

Borrowed from Yiddish חתונה (khasene), from Hebrew חתונה /חֲתֻנָּה (khatuná).

der

חתונה//חֲתֻנָּה


mesader kiddushin

en-noun

mesader kiddushin (plural mesadrei kiddushin)


you can't turn a hoe into a housewife

They say you can't turn a hoe into a housewife. I wonder . . what silly ass nigga came up with that bullshit? Now, a hoe ass nigga probably can't turn a hoe into a housewife, but a real nigga could. See, commitment is in a woman's nature.

2012 June 26, Ronnie Bo, The Trap, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, Enlightment, page 55:

A sexually promiscuous woman is not a suitable candidate for a committed housewife.


Reno divorce

1927-10-22, Ralph Graves, Robert Lord, directed by Ralph Graves, A Reno Divorce, Warner Bros., Vitaphone production reels #2331-2337

But I still recalled her threat to harass and annoy with litigation unless I obtained a Reno divorce against her. I was, therefore, left with no other alternative but to go through with the Reno divorce action without her appearance therein.

1935 December 14, “Affidavit of Isaac Levy”, in Case Press, Inc., compiler, Case opinions, New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, volume 5036, Walton, N.Y.: The Reporter Company, Inc, page 67:

In 1931, to capitalize on the income potential from being the country's new divorce mecca, the Nevada legislature shortened the residency period from six months to a mere six weeks, putting a Reno divorce within the financial reach of the average person.

2009 March 3, John Ventura, Mary Reed, Divorce For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 255:

Because Reno was Nevada's largest and most sophisticated city, to Reno they came—first Laura Corey to divorce the philandering president of U.S. Steel, then other members of New York society, and then journalists to report on the phenomenon of “going to Reno”. Reno divorces were news in the society pages of eastern newspapers by the early teens[…]

2011 March 3, Carl Abbott, How Cities Won the West: Four Centuries of Urban Change in Western North America, University of New Mexico Press, →ISBN, page 130:

no-fault divorce
no-fault divorce#English

(historical) A divorce obtained in Reno, Nevada, prior to the widespread institution of no-fault divorce in the 1970s United States. Prior to this, many states imposed onerous requirements on the granting of divorces, while Nevada's (as well as some other states') were relatively lax. Nevada required only six months of residency in the state to establish legal residency (which allowed people to bring cases in its courts), a period further lowered to six weeks in 1931, leading many people seeking divorces to temporarily move to Nevada for this purpose.


pentagamy

The state of having five spouses simultaneously.


pentagamist

(rare) Someone who has five spouses at the same time.