CONCUBINE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Concubine

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/kˈɑnkjəbˌaɪn/ Listen

noun

Concubine n.

A woman who cohabits with a man without being his wife; a paramour. Note: Concubine has been sometimes, but rarely, used of a male paramour as well as of a female.

A wife of inferior condition; a lawful wife, but not united to the man by the usual ceremonies, and of inferior condition. Such were Hagar and Keturah, the concubines of Abraham; and such concubines were allowed by the Roman laws. Their children were not heirs of their father.

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Etymology of 'Concubine'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Concubine" Quotes from Famous Books

... with impunity the noblest blood of Rome; he perished as soon as he was dreaded by his own domestics. A cup of drugged wine, delivered by his favourite concubine, plunged him in a deep sleep. At the instigation of Laetus, his Praetorian prefect, a robust youth was admitted into his chamber, and strangled him without resistance. With secrecy and celerity the conspirators sought out Pertinax, the prefect of the city, an ancient senator of consular ...

— The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI. • Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton

... nuces pueris, iners Concubine: satis diu Lusisti nucibus: lubet Iam servire Talasio. 130 ...

— The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus • Caius Valerius Catullus

... happy, because the devil, who tortures her without ceasing, deceives them all. Where is there another woman who has been so shamelessly robbed of her children? For is not my daughter the captive and concubine of an insane tuft-hunter? Has not my son been taken from me through the baseness that has been practised against his sister, and the lamentable spectacle afforded him by my own powerlessness? Where, I ask high Heaven, is there another woman so ...

— The Goose Man • Jacob Wassermann

... blood of many nationalities circulated in the veins of Baron Leonard. The Defterdar himself was a Turk of Roumelian origin, whose only son was the child of his Hindu concubine. He again married the daughter of a Polish countess at the court of Vienna. The wife of Baron Leonard's father was a wallachized Hungarian lady, whom he married for her wealth. It was not wonderful, therefore, if the noble baron ...

— The Poor Plutocrats • Maurus Jokai

... remarkable that in early times in Spain the laws recognized concubinage (barragania) as almost equal to marriage, and as conferring equal rights on the child, even on the sons of the clergy, who could thus inherit from their fathers by right of the privileges accorded to the concubine or barragana. Barragania, however, was not real marriage, and in many regions it could be contracted by married men (R. Altamira, Historia de Espana y de la Civilazacion Espanola, Vol. I, ...

— The Task of Social Hygiene • Havelock Ellis

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