concubinage

[ kon-kyoo-buh-nij, kong- ]

noun

1. cohabitation of a man and woman without legal or formal marriage.
2. the state or practice of being a concubine.

Word History and Origins

Origin of concubinage¹

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; concubine, -age

Example Sentences

“Your wives and daughters shall no longer be dragged into a concubinage, compared to which polygamy is a virtue, to satisfy the brutal lusts of slaveholders and overseers,” he shouted, pledging that Black women and their bodies would remain sacred.

From Washington Post

The book “provides an incisive interior view of some of the thorniest aspects of West Indian colonial culture: the roots of color and class privilege, the implications of concubinage and common-law marriages, and the participation of some free people of African ancestry in slavery. Evocative and immersive, Riley’s narrative bears that weight with grace.”

From New York Times

Born to Chinese immigrant parents, it would be decades before the author of The Joy Luck Club would fully understand the inherited trauma rooted in the legacies of women who survived the Chinese tradition of concubinage.

From Los Angeles Times

"In the meantime, they are considered by the Church to be living in concubinage because their traditional marriage has no canonical value," he said in a paper published in 1994.

From BBC

The Chrysanthemum Throne has persisted for more than 15 centuries, a succession of emperors and princes made possible by an unusual variation on the practice of concubinage: For much of Japanese history, the families of the aristocracy had volunteered their daughters to serve on a rotation of part-time mistresses to the emperor, ensuring a male heir was almost always available.

From New York Times