octogamie

Middle English

Noun

octogamie

1. a marrying eight times
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Wyfe of Bathes Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, lines 30-34:

     Eek wel I woot, he seyde myn housbonde / Sholde lete fader and mooder, and take to me. / But of no nombre mencion made he, / Of bigamie, or of octogamie; / Why should men thanne speke of it vileynie?

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

References

• “octogamy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.