monogamous, a.
(məˈnɒgəməs)
[f. eccl.L. monogam-us (a. Gr. µονόγαµος marrying only once, f. µόνο-ς mono- + γάµος marriage) + -ous. Cf. F. monogame.]
1. Of persons: Practising monogamy. a. Having or permitted to have only one living and undivorced husband or wife at one time: opposed to bigamous or polygamous. b. Refraining or debarred from remarriage after the death of the first spouse: opposed to digamous.
| 1798 Malthus Popul. (1817) I. 216 The number of people increased in a fourfold ratio by polygamy, to what it is in those countries that are monogamous. 1828–32 Webster, Monogamous, having one wife only and not permitted to marry a second. 1865 W. G. Palgrave Arabia I. 295 A faithful and (though wealthy) a monogamous husband. |
2. Zool. Of animals, esp. applied to birds: Pairing with only one male or female, either for the breeding season, or for life.
| 1770 G. White Selborne, To Pennant xxix, Among the monogamous birds several are to be found, after pairing-time, single, and of each sex. 1830 ‘B. Moubray’ Dom. Poultry (ed. 6) 141 The pigeon is monogamous, that is, the male attaches and confines himself to one female, and the attachment is reciprocal. 1835 Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. xxi. II. 384 Both sexes [of these fishes], for they are monogamous, watch and defend them [sc. their eggs] till the young come forth. 1835–6 Owen in Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 267/1 All the Birds of Prey..are monogamous. 1871 Darwin Desc. Man. II. xx. 361 Several kinds, as some of the Indian and American monkeys, are strictly monogamous, and associate all the year round with their wives. 1880 Günther Fishes xii. 178 Some Teleostei..are monogamous. |
3. Bot. Belonging to the Linnæan order Monogamia.
| 1821 tr. Decandolle & Sprengel's Elem. Philos. Plants ii. ii. 94 The Linnæan Monogamous plants. 1856 [see monogamic a. 2]. 1891 in Syd. Soc. Lex. |
4. Of or pertaining to monogamy.
| 1882 Baber in Roy. Geog. Soc., Suppl. Papers I. i. 97 A European..whose personal conviction..is strictly monogamous. 1878 Lecky Eng. in 18th C. (1883) I. 495 Perpetual monogamous attachments would always be the most common. 1884 Century Mag. XXVIII. 621 The monogamous family, formed by the union of one woman with one man. 1885 J. G. Bertram British Alm. Comp. 77 The grouse..[is] a bird of strictly monogamous habits. 1895 ‘G. Paston’ Stud. Prejudices vii, Monogamous marriage. |
Hence moˈnogamously adv.; moˈnogamousness.
| 1875 Echo 3 July 1/3 There are in this country..500,000 women who cannot possibly be monogamously married. 1946 Koestler Thieves in Night ii. iv. 170 There remains the tyranny of monogamousness. |