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Glite Dictionary
crim. con.

crim. con.

9.9
An old legal term for having sex with someone else's husband or wife
  • noun
  • NSFW
translation icon : adulterio
  • In the past, crim. con. was a common ground for divorce.

Examples

  • The lawyer claimed that the defendant was guilty of crim. con. with the plaintiff's wife.

  • Scandals involving crim. con. were widely reported in nineteenth-century newspapers.

  • His reputation suffered irreparably after he was accused of crim. con. in court.

  • The case was dismissed due to lack of evidence for crim. con..

  • During the trial, the jury found sufficient proof that the defendant committed crim. con. with a married woman.

  • Many high-profile cases of crim. con. made headlines in the tabloids during the late 1800s.

  • Historically, accusations of crim. con. could lead to significant social stigma and legal consequences.

Synonyms

criminal conversation
vscrim. con.
  • NSFW
9.9

A former lawsuit where a husband or wife sued someone for having sex with their married partner

is the abbreviation used for that historical legal term
case of crim. con.
vscrim. con.
  • NSFW
9.9

A lawsuit a husband brings because another man has sex with his wife

refers to the shortened form, not the specific lawsuit

Surface Forms

crim. con. singular

Morphology

crim. + con.

This is an abbreviation of the archaic legal phrase "criminal conversation," which historically means adultery — a sense not derivable from the literal constituents. The parts "crim." and "con." are non-transparent abbreviations and the noun "conversation" does not semantically signal sexual relations, so a B1 learner knowing the surface words would not predict the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Crim. con. is short for criminal conversation, a name from old court cases where a husband sued a man who had sex with his wife. At that time 'conversation' could mean sexual relations, so the phrase came to mean 'adultery'.