levirate

noun /ˈlɛvɪɹət/

1. A marriage between a widow and her deceased husband's brother or, sometimes, heir.

   countable

2. The institution of levirate marriage.

   And it is, he says, impossible not to believe that the Levirate—that is, the practice of marrying a dead brother's widow—is derived from polyandry.

Where it comes from

From Latin lēvir (“husband's brother, brother-in-law”) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dayh₂wḗr (“one's brother-in-law”).

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry levirate (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← levidromelexiphanic →

Another random word More words starting with L