paternity suit
4
6.0
- noun
- /pəˈtɜrnɪti suːt/
- Formal
:
demanda de paternidad
- What's the story behind this pending paternity suit against you?
- file a paternity suit
- bring a paternity suit
- face a paternity suit
Examples
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During the paternity suit, the court ordered a DNA test to confirm his biological relationship to the child.
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That same year, she brought a paternity suit against him.
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"Well, Judge, there was a young lady in my office this morning, Judge, and she wants to bring a paternity suit against Your Honor."
Fiction book (1999) -
Did I tell you Sandy's slapping a paternity suit on me?
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She breezes into my life for one lousy night, now I'm in a paternity suit.
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In 2011, the state of Texas passed a statute allowing men to request paternity testing (DNA testing) even long after their divorce or paternity suit has been finalized.
Blog text (22) -
In the paternity suit, she presented evidence to prove he was the father of her child.
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He was overwhelmed by the attention surrounding the paternity suit that revealed a secret child.
Synonyms
A legal action to find a child's father and make him pay child support
Surface Forms
Morphology
The overall meaning is a straightforward composition of 'paternity' (fatherhood relationship) and 'suit' (a legal action): together they denote a legal case about fatherhood. This noun-noun legal compounding is cross-linguistically common, so a learner who knows both constituent meanings should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Paternity suit combines paternity (being a father) and suit (a court case). It may come from the simple idea of taking someone to court to prove they are the 'father' and to get 'support', so today it means a legal case to decide fatherhood and financial support.