different between wedlock vs mulier

English

Etymology

From Middle English wedlok, wedlocke (“wedlock, marriage, matrimony”), from Old English wedl?c (“marriage vow, pledge, plighted troth, wedlock”); synchronically analyzable as wed +? -lock.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?w?d.l?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Noun

wedlock (countable and uncountable, plural wedlocks)

1. The state of being married.

   Synonyms: matrimony, marriage

2. (obsolete) A wife; a married woman.
   • 1601, Ben Jonson, The Poetaster:

     Which of these is thy Wedlock, Menelaus? thy Hellen? thy Lucrece? that we may do her Honour; mad Boy?

Translations

Translations

Derived terms

• bedlock
• out of wedlock

Related terms

• bridelock

English

Etymology

From Latin mulier (“woman”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?mju?.l??/

Noun

mulier (plural muliers)

1. (law, historical) Lawful issue born in wedlock, in distinction from an elder brother born of the same parents before their marriage.
   • 1908, Alfred John Horwood, Luke Owen Pike, Year books of the reign of King Edward the Third: Volume 15

     Or suppose an inquest were taken between us, and it were found that they are muliers, for which reason the voucher stood, and they came and pleaded the same exception to escape from warranting as heirs, then two inquests would be taken […]

2. (obsolete) A woman; a wife or mother.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Blount to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cowell to this entry?)

Related terms

• muliebrity

Anagrams

• Muriel

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *moljes, of uncertain origin; it has been proposed that it might derive from mollior, comparative of mollis (“soft, tender”), while others propose it might be akin to mulgere and therefore mean “the milk-giver”

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?mu.li.er/, [?m?li?r]
• (Vulgar) IPA^(key): /m??l?.?r/, [m????i??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?mu.li.er/, [?mu?li?r]

Noun

mulier f (genitive mulieris); third declension

1. a woman, female

   Synonyms: f?mina, (hapax, mentioning, Old Latin) vira
2. (by extension) a wife

   Synonym: uxor

3. (figuratively) a coward, poltroon
4. (Medieval Latin) a virgin adult

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Usage notes

Nota bene: A mulier was a woman who was married in contrast with a virgo (“unmarried woman of a marriageable age”). Thus, if a noble young girl of age 12 got married, she would be called a mulier even though by today's standards, we would not call a pre-teen girl a "woman".In contrast, if a common young woman of age 19 or 21 was still unmarried, she often was still called a virgo despite being much older than that very young noble girl married right after bleeding for the first time.

Clearly, if an older woman for whatever reason was not married off, she could be called a mulier too, so it is not a term used exclusively for married women.

Derived terms

Descendants

References

• mulier in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• mulier in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• mulier in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette