coverture
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English, borrowed from Old French coverture, from covrir (“to cover”) or from Late Latin coopertura. Doublet of couverture.
Noun
[edit]coverture (countable and uncountable, plural covertures)
- (law, historical) 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.
- 2006, Akhil Reed Amar, America's Constitution: A Biography:
- Note that voting by widows did not raise some of the concerns that might have arisen from voting by wives subject to common-law coverture servitude to their husbands.
- Alternative spelling of couverture.
- Shelter, hiding place.
- 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
- URSULA. The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait:
So angle we for Beatrice; who even now
Is couched in the woodbine coverture.
Related terms
[edit]Old French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Late Latin coopertūra, from Latin coopertus; equivalent to covert + -ure, from covrir (“to cover”).
Noun
[edit]coverture oblique singular, f (oblique plural covertures, nominative singular coverture, nominative plural covertures)
- covering; cover
- Perceval ou le conte du Graal, Christian of Troyes
- sanz coverture fu la sele[.]
- The saddle was without a cover.
- sanz coverture fu la sele[.]
- Perceval ou le conte du Graal, Christian of Troyes
Descendants
[edit]- English: coverture
- French: couverture
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English doublets
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Law
- English terms with historical senses
- English terms with quotations
- en:Marriage
- Old French terms inherited from Late Latin
- Old French terms derived from Late Latin
- Old French terms inherited from Latin
- Old French terms derived from Latin
- Old French terms suffixed with -ure
- Old French lemmas
- Old French nouns
- Old French feminine nouns