On Thu, 29 Jan 2004, Mark A Mandel wrote: > >#"MORGANTIC MARRIAGE - During the middle ages, there was an > >Note that it's "morgan<a>tic". You were lucky that The 'Lectric Law >Library's Lexicon misspelled it in the same way you did. Google gives me >44 hits for this spelling, vs. about 2,270 for the correct one. > The OED confirms this, and offers the following bit of etymology: [ad. mod.L. morganaticus (whence G. morganatisch, F. morganatique, It. morganatico, etc.) evolved from the med.L. phrase matrimonium ad morganaticam, where the last word is prob. synonymous with morganaticum MORNING-GIFT, f. OHG. morgan (= MORN) in *morgangeba morning-gift (morganegiba in Gregory of Tours, 6th c.; MHG. morgengâbe). The literal meaning of the term 'morganatic marriage' (matrimonium ad morganaticam) is, as is explained in a 16th c. passage quoted by Du Cange, a marriage by which the wife and the children that may be born are entitled to no share in the husband's possessions beyond the 'morning-gift'.] The distinctive epithet of that kind of marriage by which a man of exalted rank takes to wife a woman of lower station, with the provision that she remain in her former rank, and that the issue of the marriage have no claim to succeed to the possessions or dignities of their father; also, occasionally, used to designate the marriage, under similar conditions, of a woman of exalted rank to a man of inferior station. Hence morganatic husband, wife. A morganatic marriage is sometimes called a 'left-handed marriage' (G. Ehe zur linkenhand), because in the ceremony the bridegroom gave the bride his left hand instead of his right. The latter term is sometimes used in a wider sense, for the matrimonium inæquale of German law, in which, though the spouse of inferior rank was not elevated, the children retained the rights of succession.