Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Bigamy
/ˈbɪɡəmi/noun
The crime of marrying while an earlier marriage is still legally in force.
The Greek roots
γάμος
gámos
marriage, wedding
Literally: “twice-married”
Follow a root:γάμος3 words
The story of the word
Half Latin, half Greek, and canon lawyers built it. Late Latin bigamus meant a man married twice in succession, a widower who had remarried included, and that alone barred him from ordination. English took it through Old French in the thirteenth century and narrowed it to two marriages held at once. Greek already had a perfectly good δίγαμος; the Latin bi- won anyway.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 13th century
Same family
monogamypolygamyendogamygamete
In a sentence
He was charged with bigamy after the second wife found the first one's certificate in a drawer.