levirate marriage

English

Etymology

levirate +‎ marriage, from Late Latin lēvir (“husband's brother”).

Noun

levirate marriage (countable and uncountable, plural levirate marriages)

1. A marriage in which a widow marries her late husband's brother in order to maintain the family community.
   • 2008, Deborah L. Ellens, Women in the Sex Texts of Leviticus and Deuteronomy: A Comparative Conceptual Analysis, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 261:

     Levirate marriage protects a levir's sexual property and a dead man's entitlement. The former, however, serves the latter.

Coordinate terms

• sororate marriage

Related terms

• levir