different between jointure vs jointress

English

Etymology

From Middle English joynture, from Anglo-Norman [Term?] and Old French [Term?], from Latin i?nct?ra. Doublet of juncture.

Noun

jointure (plural jointures)

1. (obsolete) A joining; a joint.
2. (law) An estate settled on a wife, which she is to enjoy after her husband's death, for her own life at least, in satisfaction of dower.
   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act III, Scene 3,^[1]

     Then, Warwick, thus: our sister shall be Edward’s;

     And now forthwith shall articles be drawn

     Touching the jointure that your king must make,

     Which with her dowry shall be counterpoised.

   • 1633, John Donne, Confined Love

     Beasts do no jointures lose

     Though they new lovers choose;

     But we are made worse than those.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 2, Book 11, Chapter 5, p. 303,^[2]

     You tell me you are secure of having either the Aunt or the Niece, and that you might have married the Aunt before this, whose Jointure you say is immense, but that you prefer the Niece on account of her ready Money.

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 9,^[3]

     The Baronet owed his son a sum of money out of the jointure of his mother, which he did not find it convenient to pay; indeed he had an almost invincible repugnance to paying anybody, and could only be brought by force to discharge his debts.

   • 1916, George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion (postscript) in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, New York: Brentano’s, 1922, p. 214,^[4]

     Freddy had no money and no occupation. His mother’s jointure, a last relic of the opulence of Largelady Park, had enabled her to struggle along in Earlscourt with an air of gentility, but not to procure any serious secondary education for her children, much less give the boy a profession.

Verb

jointure (third-person singular simple present jointures, present participle jointuring, simple past and past participle jointured)

1. (transitive) To settle a jointure upon.
   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, London: J. Cooke, 1765, p. 170,^[5]

     He never so much as ask’d me about my Fortune or my Estate; but assured me that when we came to Dublin he would Jointure me in 600 l. a Year in good Land; and that he would enter into a Deed of Settlement, or Contract here, for the Performance of it.

Related terms

• juncture

References

• jointure in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

French

Etymology

From Old French [Term?], from Latin i?nct?ra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?w??.ty?/

Noun

jointure f (plural jointures)

1. (anatomy) joint

Related terms

• joindre
• joint

Further reading

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

English

Etymology

jointer +? -ess

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d???nt??s/

Noun

jointress (plural jointresses)

1. A widow who has a jointure; a dowager.