| 释义 |
levirate|ˈliːvɪrət|
[f. L. lēvir brother-in-law + -ate1.]
The custom among the Jews and some other nations, by which the brother or next of kin to a deceased man was bound under certain circumstances to marry the widow.
1725T. Lewis Antiq. Hebr. Republ. III. 268 The Law of Levirate. 1783T. Wilson Archæol. Dict., Levirate. 1855W. H. Mill Applic. Panth. Princ. (1861) 202 Reasoning from the spirit of the law of levirate, as concerning only succession to property. 1870Lubbock Orig. Civiliz. iii. (1875) 94 The next stage was..that form of polyandry in which brothers had their wives in common, afterwards came that of the levirate. 1883Maine Early Law & Cust. iv. 100 An institution..known commonly as the Levirate, but called by the Hindus, in its more general form, the Niyoga.
b. attrib. passing into adj.
1865tr. Renan's Life Jesus xvii. 203 The Mosaic code had consecrated this partriarchal theory by a strange institution, the levirate law. 1879Farrar St. Paul I. 264 The law of levirate marriage might be set aside if [etc.].
Hence leviˈratic, leviˈratical adjs., pertaining to or in accordance with the levirate; leviˈration, leviratical marriage.
1815in J. Allen Mod. Judaism (1816) 415 note, The design of the precept of leviration was [etc.]. 1849Alford Grk. Test. I. 159 (Matt. xxii. 24), The firstborn son of a leviratical marriage was reckoned..as the son of the deceased brother. |