levirate

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“
As for the levirate, that is another very wide-spread custom which shows an utter disregard of woman's preference and choice.

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun The practice of marrying the widow of one's childless brother to maintain his line, as required by ancient Hebrew law.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (28)

  • Likewise, the Bible permitted behaviors that we today condemn: prostitution, polygamy, levirate marriage, sex with slaves, concubinage, treatment of women as property, and very early marriage (for the girl, age 11-13). —  open source theology - Comments
  • To portray Hasidic Jews as proceeding with a levirate marriage instead of 'Chalitzah' is in some form a caricature of Hasidic observance based on complete ignorance of the culture. —  Tablet Magazine
  • Yivum The levirate Marriage vs. the default prohibition of one's brothers wife. —  DovBear
  • As for the levirate, that is another very wide-spread custom which shows an utter disregard of woman's preference and choice. —  Primitive Love and Love-Stories
  • This is improbable: not so much because the marriage was not strictly levirate, since neither Boaz nor the kinsman was the brother-in-law of Ruth--it would be fair enough to regard this as a legitimate extension of the principle of levirate marriage, whose object was to perpetuate the dead man's name--but rather because this is a comparatively subordinate element in the story The true explanation is no doubt to be sought in the fact that Ruth the Moabitess is counted worthy to be an ancestress of David; and, if the book be post-exilic, its religious significance is at once apparent. —  Introduction to the Old Testament
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Latin lēvir, husband's brother; see daiwer- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = Spanish levirato, from New Latin leviratus, from Latin levir (= Greek δαήρ, orig. *δα#567ήρ, = Sanskrit dēvara = Anglo-Saxon tācor = Old High German zeihhur), a husband's brother, + -atus, English -ate.
 

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/ˈlɛvɪreɪt/
by American Heritage

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