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prettygoodwordlevirate (LEV-er-it, LEE-ver-it, LEV-er-ate, LEE-ver-ate) - adj., having to do with one's husband's brother.
Almost always specificially levirte marriage, the custom of marrying one's deceased husband's brother. This is sometimes compulsory, such as under Hebraic law (Deut. 25:5–10) if said husband died childless -- see for ex the story of Onan, who was killed not for the act named after him but for stealing from his brother by not providing the heir the marriage was supposed to produce. Levriate marriage is practiced mostly in societies with strong clan structures with rare exogamous marriage. The term comes from Latin lēvir, husband's brother -- yes, the Romans did distinguish between kinds of brothers-in-law, as did the Anglo-Saxons and Ancient Greeks -- but I'm not clear on whether levirate was coined from the root or derived from a Latin term. Either way, it arrived around 1725.
---L.
Almost always specificially levirte marriage, the custom of marrying one's deceased husband's brother. This is sometimes compulsory, such as under Hebraic law (Deut. 25:5–10) if said husband died childless -- see for ex the story of Onan, who was killed not for the act named after him but for stealing from his brother by not providing the heir the marriage was supposed to produce. Levriate marriage is practiced mostly in societies with strong clan structures with rare exogamous marriage. The term comes from Latin lēvir, husband's brother -- yes, the Romans did distinguish between kinds of brothers-in-law, as did the Anglo-Saxons and Ancient Greeks -- but I'm not clear on whether levirate was coined from the root or derived from a Latin term. Either way, it arrived around 1725.
---L.
