wedlock

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wedlok, also wedlac and wedloc,^[2][3] inherited from Old English wedlāc (“pledge-giving, marriage vow”),^[4][5][6][7] formed from wedd (“pledge”), the source of wed, and the noun suffix -lāc, which denotes an activity.^[5][6][3][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Collins and Klein derive the suffix, with more or less confidence, from lāc (“play, sport, battle”),^[3][9][10] which Klein relates to Old Norse leikr (“play”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌺𐍃 (laiks, “sport, game”).^[10] Old English has about a dozen compounds in the suffix, such as feohtlac (“warfare”), but this is the only one that survives.^[4][8] Its spelling with -lock presumably comes from a folk association with lock.^[4] Johnson took the second part to mean a gift.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Two 11th-century vocabularies use the word to gloss arrabo (“earnest-money”), a pledge, but the OED finds that this sense did not reach Middle English;^[5][12] another glossary has it for a betrothal contract.^[12] The OED's first record of the marriage vow is in a glossary to Aldhelm.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories finds the marriage vow or bond in writings of the 12th century.^[8] People could hold or keep wedlock, that is be faithful, or break wedlock, commit adultery, as in Tyndale's New Testament of 1526; this use lasted until 1616.^[5][8] From about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle, it also meant the condition of being married,^[5][8] which Etymonline finds around 1200 in the phrase in wedlock.^[4] Legitimacy followed: born under wedlock appears in Laȝamon's Brut about 1275,^[5][12] and Etymonline dates out of wedlock to about 1400.^[4] The OED calls that phrase now the most frequent use of the noun, and otherwise a literary or legal word.^[5] Chaucer used wedlok five times.^[13] Middle English also used it for a particular marriage (1377, in Piers Plowman) and for a wedding ceremony (before 1300, in King Horn).^[5] A wife could be called one's wedlock from 1566 to 1690.^[5][14] A rare verb, to unite in marriage, is found in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[5][14] Johnson (1755) defines the word simply as marriage or matrimony.^[11]

Timeline

• 11th century – pledge, earnest-money, in Old English glossaries.^[5][12]
• c. 1225 – the condition of being married.^[5]
• c. 1275 – born in wedlock.^[5]
• before 1300 – a marriage ceremony (obsolete).^[5]
• 1377 – a matrimonial union, a married life.^[5]
• 1566 – a wife (obsolete after 1690).^[5]
• 1737 – verb, to unite in marriage (obsolete).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of being married; marriage, matrimony: They spent forty years in wedlock.^[9][3][5]
2. born in wedlock, born out of wedlock: born to parents who are, or are not, legally married.^[9][5][14]
3. (archaic) A marital union; a married life.^[3][5]
4. (obsolete, Old English–1616) The marriage vow or bond.^[5][3][14]
5. (obsolete, 1566–1690) A wife.^[5][3][14]

Related words

• wed
• -lock
• lock
• gage

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press