WORDS RELATED TO ROMAN MATRIMONY

• emancipation, espousals, spouse, matrimony  

"EMANCIPATION"

ENGLISH WORD: “emancipation”.

CURRENT MEANING: the act of freeing or the state of being freed, liberation.

ORIGIN: it refers to Latin term manus, that makes reference to the pater familias authority over his family. So that the emancipatio in Rome released a child from the parental authority.

 

"ESPOUSALS"

ENGLISH WORD: “espousals”.

CURRENT MEANING: an engagement or betrothal celebration between two future spouses, ceremony in which the marriage is celebrated.

ORIGIN: this term comes from the Latin sponsales and it refers to an archaic ceremony in which the parents of the future spouses arranged the marriage and indicated the dowry that the bride would bring to the marriage.

 

"SPOUSE"

ENGLISH WORD: “spouse”, “spousal”.

CURRENT MEANING: the spouse is a person´s partner in marriage and the spousal is the ceremony of marriage, we can use it as a synonym of “nuptial”, “matrimonial”. In English there is not a derivative of this term to refer to cuff or manacles.

ORIGIN: it comes from the Latin word sponsa with the meaning of “fiancee”. Therefore there was a change in the meaning, because the married woman in Rome was the nupta.

 

Roman fresco. Aldobrandini Wedding. Artist unknown.

 

"MATRIMONY"

ENGLISH WORD: “matrimony”.

CURRENT MEANING: it alludes to the legal union of a couple.

ORIGIN: in Rome matrimonium (mater-monium) was a legal term that allowed women to be mothers within legality.

 

Marriage between two Roman citizens. Mural of a sarcophagus in the Capodimonte Museum.