different between adultery vs concubinage

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.

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French concubinage.

Noun

concubinage (countable and uncountable, plural concubinages)

1. The state of cohabiting or living together as man and wife while not married.
2. The state of being or keeping a concubine.
   • 1902 Websters International Dictionary. "In some countries, concubinage is marriage of an inferior kind, or performed with less solemnity than a true or formal marriage; or marriage with a woman of inferior condition to whom the husband does not convey his rank or quality. Under Roman Law, it was the living together of a man and a woman in sexual relations without marriage but in conformity with local law."

Translations

French

Etymology

From concubin +? -age.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.ky.bi.na?/

Noun

concubinage m (plural concubinages)

1. concubinage

Further reading

• “concubinage” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).