adultery
(əˈdʌltərɪ)
Forms: 4–5 avowter, avowtrie, -tri, -tery, avouterye; 4–6 avoutrie, -try; 5 avutrie, avoutri, -trye, -terie, avowtrye; adultery, -trye (only in Sc. and north. writers); 5–6 advoutrye, -tery, -terye, advoultrye, 5–7 advowtry, -trie, advoutrie, -try, 6 advoutri, -treye, adoutry, aduoultrie, -try, adoultry, 6–7 adultry, -trie, -terie, 6– adultery.
[a. OFr. avouterie, avoutrie, earlier aöuterie, aülterie, n. of condition f. avoutre, aöutre:—L. adulter, see -y; found alongside of avoutire, earlier aöutire, aültere:—L. adultērium, occas. also in Eng. as avowter. In 14th c. Fr. a learned form adultère was formed afresh on L. adulterium, and gradually superseded the popular avoutire and avouterie; under the same influence the Eng. avoutrie was progressively refashioned as advoutrie or aduoutrie, aduoultrie, adoultry, adultry, adultery, thus ending in a direct Eng. repr. of adulterium, and practically a distinct word from avoutrie, though connected with it by every kind of intermediate form. This latinized type had also been used by Scotch and northern writers as early as 1430. Advowtry survived to 1688.]
1. Violation of the marriage bed; the voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with one of the opposite sex, whether unmarried, or married to another (the former case being technically designated single adultery, the latter double adultery).
| 1366 Mandeville 249 Ȝif ony man or woman be taken in Avowtery or Fornycacyoun, anon thei sleen him. c 1370 Wyclif Agst. Begging Friers (1608) 31 Fryars suffren mightie men, fro yeare to yeare, live in avowtrie. 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. 766 Thilke stynkynge synne of lecherie that men clepe auowtrie (v.r. avoutrie, auouterie, advoutrie2, aduoutre). 1400 Apol. for Loll. 78 If þe first woman may not proue her contract, þan þe secound schal be his wif, bi resoun of avowter. c 1418 Pol. Poems (1859) II. 247 So overset with avutrie. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vi. ii. 87 Bot a wykkdy wyf had he Ðat levyd in-til Adultery. c 1460 Cov. Myst. (1841) 10 A woman..The whiche was taken in adultrye. 1485 Richard III in Paston Lett. 883 III. 317 Doughter unto Dame Katryne Swynford and of her in double Avoutry gottyn. 1491 Caxton How to Die 6 The woman that was taken in aduoultrye. 1525 Ld. Berners Froissart xliii. II. 139 She was but a bastarde, and borne in aduoutrye. 1533 Elyot Castel of Helth iii. xii. 67 Hym, which had committed adoutry with his mayster's wyfe. 1541 Barnes Wks. 1573, 187/2 That you shal depose a kyng, bycause hee lyueth in aduoultry. 1570 R. Ascham Scholem. (1863) 81 Knightes that do kill..and commit fowlest aduoulteres. 1611 Bible John viii. 4 This woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. [Wycl. avoutri, Tind. advoutry, Cranm. aduoutry, Genev., Rhem. aduoutrie, Gen. 1590 adulterie.] 1641 W. Cartwright Ordinary iv. v. (1651) 75 There shall be no Advowtry in my ward. 1648 Herrick To his Book Wks. 1859, 409 She'l runne to all adulteries. 1660 R. Coke Elem. Power & Subj. 194 Deadly sin, of Fornication, Avowtry, and such like. 1677 Baxter Let. in Answ. Dodwell 114, I heard, when I was young, of one, or two, that for Adultery stood in a White Sheet in the Church. 1688 Pol. Ballads (1860) I. 265 As long as you've pence, y' need scruple no offence, For murder, advoutery, treason. 1835 Thirlwall Greece I. viii. 327 Adultery was long unknown at Sparta. |
b. Extended in Scripture, to unchastity generally; and by various theologians opprobriously used of any marriages of which they disapproved, as of a widower, a nun, a Christian with a Jewess, etc. (interpretative adultery). Also fig. in Script. to giving the affections to idols, idol-worship; and in Eccl. writers to the enjoyment by any one of a benefice during the life-time of the legal incumbent, or to the translation of a bishop from one see to another (spiritual adultery). See Chambers Cycl. Supp. 1753, s.v.
| 1388 Wyclif Jer. iii. 9 Bi liȝtnesse of hir fornicacioun sche defoulide the erthe, and dide auowtrie with a stoon, and with a tree. 1590 Bible (Genev.) Matt. v. 28 Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adulterie with her already in his heart. 1611 Bible Jer. iii. 9 Shee defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stockes. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. A kind of second marriage, which was esteemed a degree of adultery. 1872 Freeman Hist. Ess. (ed. 2) 17 He is rebuked by Saint Dunstan who pronounces the marriage to be mere adultery. |
¶ ‘Used in ancient customs for the punishment or fine imposed for that offence, or the privilege of prosecuting for it.’ Chambers, Cycl. Supp. 1753, whence in subseq. Encyclopædias and Dicts. But Spelman, who is quoted for it, gives it only (and that erroneously) as a use of the L. adulterium.
† 2. Adulteration, debasement, corruption. Obs.
| 1609 B. Jonson Epicene i. i, Such sweet neglect more taketh me, Than all th' Adulteries of Art. 1673 Lady's Calling ii. iii. §20. 92 Nor must she think to cure this by any the little adulteries of art: she may buy beauty, and yet can never make it her own. |