wedlock
/ˈwɛd.lɒk/ noun
Forms wedlocks
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English wedlok, wedlocke (“wedlock, marriage, matrimony”), from Old English wedlāc (“marriage vow, pledge, plighted troth, wedlock”). By surface analysis, wed + -lock.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The ceremony, or the state, of marriage; matrimony. "That blissful yoke . . . that men clepeth [call] spousal, or wedlock." Chaucer.
- noun A wife; a married woman. [Obs.] B. Jonson.
- verb To marry; to unite in marriage; to wed. [R.] "Man thus wedlocked." Milton.
Etymology [AS. wedlac a pledge, be trothal; wedd a pledge + lac a gift, an offering. See Wed, n., and cf. Lake, v. i., Knowledge.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “wedlock”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details