Morganatic

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /mɔːɡəˈnætɪk/

Definitions

1. Relating to a union between a person of nobility and one of inferior rank, this type of marriage typically restricts the latter's access to inheritance rights and titles
2. Characterizing a marriage arrangement that joins a noble individual with a commoner, this partnership usually results in the commoner's disqualification from royal inheritance
3. An arrangement for marriage where a noble may wed someone of lower status, typically preventing the latter from inheriting titles or wealth

Etymology: The word traces back to a Germanic custom. The Proto-Germanic "murgnagebō" meant "morning gift," the present a husband gave his bride the morning after the wedding night, which became hers to keep whatever happened to the marriage. Old English had its own form, "morgenġiefu," for the same practice. The Medieval Latin phrase "mātrimōnium ad morganāticum," meaning a marriage with a morning gift, described unions in which a noble wed a person of lower rank and the bride and any children were excluded from the husband's titles and property. Old English "morgenġiefu" and the Latin phrase share the same root, so the custom and the term passed through several languages together. New Latin "morganāticus" gave English the adjective. The sense narrowed from the gift itself to the restricted marriage it had come to signify, and the word is now mostly used of royal and aristocratic unions in Europe.