Link Centre Dictionary

levirate

le·vi·rate

UK/ˈlɛvɪɹət/ uncommon

noun

1.

the biblical institution whereby a man must marry the widow of his childless brother in order to maintain the brother''s line

Origin

From Latin lēvir (“husband's brother, brother-in-law”) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dayh₂wḗr (“one's brother-in-law”).

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.