▪ I. † ˈmulier, n.1 Obs.—1
[AF.: see next.]
Wife.
| a 1375 Cursor M. 7849 (Fairf.) Isaac his sone of mulier [Cotton o spus] was. |
▪ II. mulier, a. and n.2 Law.
(ˈmjuːlɪə(r))
Forms: 4 moillere, moylere, 5 mulire, mulyer, 6 melior, 4– mulier; also as variant readings in Piers Pl. moilere, moilre, moilliere, -ller, mul(l)iere, mulere(r.
[repr. AF. mulieré (Britton), Law Lat. mulierātus, a derivative of AF. mulier, OF. moiller wife, ad. L. mulier woman.
With regard to the dropping of final é in Law terms of AF. origin, cf. assign n.2 In the variant muliery the é is rendered by y.]
A. adj. Of a child: born in wedlock, legitimate, as opposed to ‘bastard’; also in Eccl. Law, legitimatized by marriage.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. ii. 131 Wel ȝe witen..That fals is faithlees..And was a bastarde y-bore..And Mede is moylere a mayden of gode. 1430–1 Rolls Parlt. IV. 375/2 To yentent yat she shuld be certified mulire be sum ordinarie. 1527 Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.) I. 26 Isabelle and Dowce my mulier doughtours..Kateryn and Anne my bastard doughtours. 1642 tr. Perkins' Prof. Bk. i. §49. 22 A bastard eigne who is mulier in the spirituall law. |
| quasi-adv. c 1450 Lovelich Grail xxxix. 543 For..that Mulyer not born he was [pour chou k'il ne sera pas engenres de mere moillier]. 1549 Will of Awbrey (Somerset Ho.), My base sonne & not melior begotten. |
B. n. A legitimate child; a child born in wedlock. mulier puisne (also anglicized mulier youngest): see bastard n. 1.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xvi. 221 Man & his make & moillere her children. 1579 Expos. Terms Law 148 And alwayes you shall finde this addicion to them (Basterd eldest, & mulier yongest) when they bee compared together. 1628 Coke On Litt. 244 b, If a man hath Issue Bastard eigne and Mulier puisne. Ibid. 245 Where the Bastard enter after the death of the father, and the mulier oust him. 1766 Blackstone Comm. II. 248. |