coverture
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈkʌvərtʃər/
- Archaic
:
covertura
- By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the legal status of a married woman, called coverture, prohibited her from holding office, taking part in elections, being a party in a lawsuit, owning property, or even writing a will.
Examples
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Under the common law doctrine of coverture, a married woman could be neither debtor nor creditor.
Academic text (2016) -
The default setting was "coverture," a legal doctrine which subsumed a woman's legal identity to her husband's when she got married.
Blog text (15) -
With the elimination of coverture, that is, a husband might find himself legally indebted to his wife.
Academic text (2016) -
This dual land system permitted married women and couples to hold island lots at a time when, by the law of coverture, non-Native married women lost all property rights upon marriage.
Academic text (2018) -
In 1907, Congress codified the practice of coverture by stripping citizenship from American women who married non-citizens.
Academic text (2002) -
Coverture, joined with brute strength, forced a mother’s hand during her lifetime and even beyond, since wives were legally unable to create wills without their husbands' consent.
Academic text (2016) -
Under the doctrine of coverture, a married woman could not own property independently of her husband.
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With the end of coverture, women gained the legal right to manage their own finances and assets.
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The legal principle of coverture denied married women the ability to enter into contracts without their husband's approval.
Antonyms
608
3.0
Freedom from control by others, for example when a country is free or a person supports themselves
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Coverture comes from the same root as the English word cover, from a French idea of 'covering'. That's why coverture was the name of an old legal rule where a married woman was legally 'covered' by her husband and could not act separately in law.