morganatic
/ˌmɔːɡəˈnatɪk
/adjective
Relating to or denoting a marriage in which neither the spouse of lower rank, nor any children, have any claim to the possessions or title of the spouse of higher rank: he contracted a morganatic marriage with a German-born actress...
- As this was a morganatic marriage, their five children should not have been eligible for the succession.
- A morganatic marriage is one between a member of the royal house and a wife not of equal birth, in which the wife does not take her husband's rank.
- In advising Edward VIII against a morganatic marriage to Mrs Simpson he acted with the utmost constitutional propriety.
Derivatives
morganatically
- An anonymous hand penned that the Queen had cancelled diary appointments because of her pregnancy by John Brown to whom she ‘has been morganatically married… for a long time?’
- Isabella's first regent was her mother, who weakened her position by morganatically marrying a shopkeeper's son and by her reputation for ruthless greed.
- His regular companion was now the pious Mme de Maintenon, who had been governess to the children of earlier mistresses; and soon after the queen's death he married her morganatically.
Origin
Early 18th century: from modern Latin morganaticus, from medieval Latin matrimonium ad morganaticam 'marriage with a morning gift' (because a morning gift, given by a husband to his wife on the morning after the marriage, was the wife's sole entitlement in a marriage of this kind).