different between adultery vs avoutrie

English

Etymology

From the Old French scholarly form adultere (“violation of conjugal faith”) (in Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons, 12c.), from Latin adulterium, from adulter. Replaced the older form avoutrie, from the popular Old French forms avouterie or aoulterie. Compare French adultère (“adultery”). Displaced Old English ?wbry?e. Not related to adult.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??d?lt??i/

Noun

adultery (countable and uncountable, plural adulteries)

1. Sexual intercourse by a married person with someone other than their spouse.
   • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, De Cive

     So also that copulation which in one City is Matrimony, in another will be judged Adultery.

   • 2009 Garner's Modern American Usage page 22

     Under modern statutory law, some courts hold that the unmarried participant isn't guilty of adultery (that only the married participant is)

2. (biblical) Lewdness or unchastity of thought as well as act, as forbidden by the seventh commandment.
3. (biblical) Faithlessness in religion.
4. (obsolete) The fine and penalty formerly imposed for the offence of adultery.
5. (ecclesiastical) The intrusion of a person into a bishopric during the life of the bishop.
6. (political economy) Adulteration; corruption.
7. (obsolete) Injury; degradation; ruin.

Synonyms

• advowtry (obsolete)

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• adultery in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• adultery in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• avowtrye

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French avouterie, from Latin adulterium.

Noun

avoutrie (plural avoutries)

1. adultery
   • 14th c., Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Friar’s Tale:

     Whilom ther was dwellynge in my contree
     An erchedeken, a man of heigh degree,
     That boldely dide execucioun
     In punysshynge of fornicacioun,
     Of wicchecraft, and eek of bawderye,
     Of diffamacioun, and avowtrye,
     Of chirche reves, and of testamentz,
     Of contractes and of lakke of sacramentz,
     Of usure, and of symonye also.

Descendants

• English: advowtry, avowtry

References

• “av?utr?(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.