Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A covering; a shelter.
- n. The state of being concealed; disguise.
- n. Law The status of a married woman under common law.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A cover or covering.
- n. A covert or shelter; covering; protection; disguise; pretense.
- n. Specifically, in law, the status of a married woman considered as under the cover or power of her husband, and therefore called a feme covert. At common law coverture disabled a woman from making contracts to the prejudice of herself or her husband without his allowance or confirmation. Also
covert .
Wiktionary
- n. law A common law doctrine developed in England during the Middle Ages, whereby a woman's legal existence, upon marriage, was subsumed by that of her husband, particularly with regard to ownership of property and protection.
- n. alternative spelling of couverture.
- n. Shelter, hiding place.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Covering; shelter; defense; hiding.
- n. (Law) The condition of a woman during marriage, because she is considered under the cover, influence, power, and protection of her husband, and therefore called a feme covert, or femme couverte.
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French coverture, from covrir ("to cover") (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from covert, covered; see covert. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“C: Yes, it comes from common law, called coverture, describing marital roles and duties.”
“The doctrine of "coverture," which subsumed wives into their husbands 'citizenship, eroded during the 19th century, and (white or non-Southern) women became voting citizens in 1919.”
“This doctrine became a way to reconcile the increasing sense that men and women really were equals thanks mostly to the revolution in marriage that made it based on consent and love along with the spread of classical liberal ideas about the inherent rights of individuals with the objective circumstances of the 19th century where men had legal advantages such as coverture that enabled them to control economic resources, as well as having the franchise, which women lacked.”
“By the law as it stands, if Mr Norton can evade his covenant (as he does, by stating that it is null because it was a contract with me, and "a man cannot contract with his own wife") he can defraud the creditor; for if a creditor sues me, I have only to plead 'coverture' (plead that I am a married woman), and the creditor who could not recover against Mr Norton is equally unable to recover against me.”
“This concept of “coverture” meant that a husband not only legally owned every piece of property in his family but also was, according to law and American culture, incapable of raping his wife.”
“Once I read a news article that was just so blatantly biased in favor of the view that 19th century coverture laws were unjust.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » CNN Profiles Lawyers in Same-Sex Marriage Case
“There was also the issue of coverture, or the belief that a woman's civil existence is erased the moment she marries.”
The Huffington Post: Arlene M. Roberts: Committed: An Immigration Love Story
“We especially need it now as we try to unravel the remnants of "coverture" that still constrain women's civil status and as we do so in the face of an intensifying backlash against women's equality.”
The Huffington Post: Ellen Chesler: How Women Became Citizens (Hint: It Didn't Happen Overnight!)
“Even violence against women was for many years condoned under the principle of male "coverture" that defined women's legal identities.”
The Huffington Post: Ellen Chesler: How Women Became Citizens (Hint: It Didn't Happen Overnight!)
“According to the laws of coverture, when she marries she must cede all legal rights to her husband.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘coverture’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, C
cryptoxanthin, convent, calcar, chuckle, campanile, covet, complexion, campestral, chirography, counterscarp, caliginous, catabolism and 722 more...
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noele's list
vertiginous, verdant, mellifluous, serpentine, verdigris, traject, amaranthine, luminous, phosphorescent, temerous, cerulean, shapeshifter and 531 more...
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Literarie: The Tragedy of Coriolanus
A play by William Shakespeare.
sufferance, cram, garner, embracement, freelier, mammock, cambric, stitchery, cloven, murrain, manifest housekeeper, a crack'd drachma! and 88 more...
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C
concupiscence, Cadmean victory, caprice, caustic, circumambient, circumlocution, claque, colonnade, comprador, concatenate, concours d'élégance, concourse and 61 more...
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Of or pertaining to a wife or wives
uxor, uxorial, uxoricide, uxoricidal, uxorilocal, uxorious, uxoriousness, wifedom, wifely, wifing, wifish, wifkin and 7 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for coverture.
fbharjo another word for étouffée? Mar 3, 2011
ruzuzu Ah--there it is. See ketchup couverture. Mar 3, 2011
ruzuzu Didn't the frog have something about ketchup coverture? Mar 3, 2011
bilby "When drums and trumpets shall
I' the field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be
Made all of false-fac'd soothing.
When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk,
Let him be made a coverture for the wars."
- William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'. Aug 28, 2009
reesetee I think we should go back to this word, don't you? It sounds so much more elegant. Except in that married life sense, that is. ;-) Jan 2, 2008
bilby Reminds me of Italian copertura with similar meanings. In modern times you hear talk of the copertura of a mobile phone network, which I think shows the link between coverture and the word which shoved it into the background, coverage. Jan 2, 2008
chained_bear According to the OED:
Law. The condition or position of a woman during her married life, when she is by law under the authority and protection of her husband. Also in phr. under coverture (lit. and fig.).
But that is definition 9. The earlier ones are more prosaic:
Anything used to cover. Formerly used of the cover or lid of a cup or dish; the cover of a book; the cover of a letter; now only in the general and usually collective sense of ‘covering’.
And the earliest usage: A bed-cover, coverlet, or quilt. Obs. Jan 2, 2008