levirate

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛvɪɹət/

levirate (not comparable)

1. Having to do with one's husband's brother.

• This adjective is used almost exclusively as part of the phrase levirate marriage.

levirate (plural levirates)

1. (countable) A marriage between a widow and her deceased husband's brother or, sometimes, heir.
2. (anthropology) The institution of levirate marriage.
   • 1894, Edward Westermarck, The History of Human Marriage, 2nd edition, Macmillan and Co., page 510:

     And it is, he says, impossible not to believe that the Levirate—that is, the practice of marrying a dead brother's widow—is derived from polyandry.

   • 1986, Claus Westermann, translated by John S. Scullion, Genesis 37-50: A Continental Commentary, Fortress Press, →ISBN, page 52:

     It is only a secondary purpose of the levirate that the property of the deceased passes on to the one who is heir to his name, and is probably a later accretion.

   • 2006, Gary P. Ferraro, Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective, Thomson Wadsworth, →ISBN, page 219:

     The levirate is found in patrilineal societies in which the bride marries into her husband's family while essentially severing her ties with her original family.

• relative