marriageabilityn.
/ˌmarᵻdʒəˈbɪlᵻti/, U.S. /ˌmɛrɪdʒəˈbɪlədi/ The quality of being marriageable; eligibility for marriage.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > fitness for marriage > [noun]
marriageableness1687
nubility1813
marriageability1868
1868 Ladies' Repository Nov. 352/2 The whole burden of ascertaining the marriageability of the parties..is most absurdly thrown upon the clergyman who performs the ceremony.
1900 G. M. Gould & W. L. Pyle Anomalies & Curiosities Med. I. 37 Menstruation is held..to be evidence..of marriageability.
1944 G. B. Shaw Everybody's Polit. What's What? viii. 61 Equality of income and complete touchability and marriageability exist at present at different levels in the trades, the professions, the ranks, and the classes.
1974 Sci. Amer. Sept. 113/1 According to Oriental astrology, girls born that year may murder their husbands, which tends to reduce their marriageability.
1992 T. Morrison Jazz 76 She wondered about the hysteria, the violence, the damnation of pregnancy without marriageability.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1868