uxorial

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English[edit]

WOTD – 15 May 2020

Etymology[edit]

From Latin uxōrius (“of or pertaining to a wife; overly fond of one’s wife”) + English -al (suffix forming adjectives). Uxōrius is derived from uxor (“wife”) + -ius (suffix forming adjectives).[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

uxorial (not generally comparable, comparative more uxorial, superlative most uxorial)

  1. (not comparable) Of or pertaining to a wife, or her genes or relatives.
    (of or pertaining to a wife): Synonyms: wifelike, wifely, wifey
    • 1778, William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens, “Tempest”, in The Plays of William Shakespeare. in Ten Volumes. With the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators; […], 2nd revised and augmented edition, London: Printed for C. Bathurst, […], →OCLC, act IV, scene i, page 86, footnote 3:
      We ſtill ſay that a huſband hangs out the broom when his wife goes from home for a ſhort time; and on ſuch occaſions a broom beſom has been exhibited as a ſignal that the houſe was freed from uxorial reſtraint, and where the maſter might be conſidered as a temporary bachelor.
    • 1800 May 16, [His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence and St. Andrews], “Debate in the Lords on the Adultery Prevention Bill”, in [William Cobbett], editor, The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803. […] (House of Lords), volume XXXV, London: Printed by T[homas] C[urson] Hansard, […] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown; [et al.], published 1819, →OCLC, column 239:
      So that it appears, that while the man [of Ancient Greece or Rome] might, with impunity, prostitute his wife to all his connexions, the beautiful but enslaved victim was to be punished with death, if, after such prostitution of her person by the express command of her husband, her eye should stray to an object more agreeable to her fancy, than those appointed for her by her uxorial pander!
    • 1973, Jack Goody, “Bridewealth and Dowry in Africa and Eurasia”, in Jack Goody, S[tanley] J[eyaraja] Tambiah, Bridewealth and Dowry, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: At the University Press, →ISBN, page 16:
      To marry with bridewealth is known as kukwa, and this form of union involves the allocation of both uxorial and genetricial rights to the husband. He is entitled to compensation in the case of adultery and he both receives and pays the bridewealth for his sons and daughters.
    • 1987, Esther Fuchs, “Self-conscious Heroism: And Moon in the Valley of Ajalon”, in Israeli Mythogynies: Women in Contemporary Hebrew Fiction (SUNY Series in Modern Jewish Literature and Culture), Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, pages 115–116:
      Both are middle-class wives and mothers who are socially isolated and disenchanted with their marriages. [...] Unable to escape their uxorial and maternal roles, both retreat into themselves.
    • 2000, Randall Craig, “Engaging Lies in Jane Eyre”, in Promising Language: Betrothal in Victorian Law and Fiction, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 121:
      Jane [Eyre]'s nightmare of inarticulate desire suggests that more is at stake than common law, as Rochester seems to believe, or even ethical norms, such as she grapples with after learning his uxorial secret.
    • 2007, Leor Halevi, “The Politics of Burial and Tomb Construction”, in Muhammad’s Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society, New York, N.Y., Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, →ISBN; paperback edition, New York, N.Y., Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2011, →ISBN, page 174:
      If none of the male relatives by blood could attend the funeral, then the paternal relatives by marriage (nasab), the benefactor (al-mawlā al-mun‘im) or his closest kinsman, the male relatives on the maternal side (dhawū arḥāmihi), and male strangers all vied for power [to lead in prayer]. In commanding this ritual, agnatic kinsmen outranked maternal and uxorial kinsmen.
  2. (comparable) Devoted to one's wife; uxorious.
    • 1853, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XII, in “My Novel”; Or Varieties in English Life […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book eighth, page 368:
      Riccabocca, the wiliest and most relentless of men in his maxims, melted into absolute uxorial imbecility at the sight of that mute distress.
    • 2013, Thomas Keneally, chapter 19, in Shame and the Captives (A Knopf Book), North Sydney, N.S.W.: Random House Australia, →ISBN; 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster, December 2015, →ISBN, page 181:
      He introduced the woman to his wife, feeling an unfamiliar uxorial pride as he did it, showing off Emily's angular beauty at forty-four to this worn and hollowed former girl, misshapen from labor and rural poverty, who might have been any age between thirty-five and fifty-five, and who had reached a plateau of endurance of which her body was a map.

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

devoted to one's wife — see uxorious

References[edit]

  1. ^ “uxorial, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1916; “uxorial, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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