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espousal. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
espousal, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
espousal in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
espousal you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English espousal, espousaille, from Old French espousailles, from Latin sponsalia (“a betrothal”), neuter plural of sponsalis, from spōnsus (“one betrothed, a spouse”); see spouse.
Noun
espousal (countable and uncountable, plural espousals)
- A betrothal.
1949, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces:So he pressed her again and again with advice on the matter of espousals; but she ever opposed to him refusals, till at last she turned upon him angrily and cried, "O my father, if thou name matrimony to me once more, I will go into my chamber and take a sword, and, fixing its hilt on the ground, will set its point to my waist; then I will press upon it, till it come forth from my back, and so slay myself."
- A wedding ceremony.
- Adoption of a plan, cause, or idea.
Derived terms
Translations
Further reading
- “espousal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “espousal”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- “espousal”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams