jointure

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English joynture, from Old French jointure, from Latin iūnctūra. Doublet of juncture.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdʒɔɪn.t͡ʃə(ɹ)/

Noun

jointure (plural jointures)

1. (obsolete) A joining; a joint.
2. (law) An estate settled on a wife, which she is to enjoy after her husband's death, for her own life at least, in satisfaction of dower.
   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

     Then, Warwick, thus: our sister shall be Edward’s; / And now forthwith shall articles be drawn / Touching the jointure that your king must make, / Which with her dowry shall be counterpoised.

   • 1633, John Donne, Confined Love:

     Beasts do no jointures lose / Though they new lovers choose; / But we are made worse than those.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter V, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book XI, page 303:

     You tell me you are secure of having either the Aunt or the Niece, and that you might have married the Aunt before this, whose Jointure you say is immense, but that you prefer the Niece on account of her ready Money.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter IX, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     The Baronet owed his son a sum of money out of the jointure of his mother, which he did not find it convenient to pay; indeed he had an almost invincible repugnance to paying anybody, and could only be brought by force to discharge his debts.

   • 1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion. Sequel: What Happened Afterwards.”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, pages 195–196:

     Freddy had no money and no occupation. His mother's jointure, a last relic of the opulence of Largelady Park, had enabled her to struggle along in Earlscourt with an air of gentility, but not to procure any serious secondary education for her children, much less give the boy a profession.

Verb

jointure (third-person singular simple present jointures, present participle jointuring, simple past and past participle jointured)

1. (transitive) To settle a jointure upon.
   • 1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page 173:

     He never ſo much as ask’d me about my Fortune, or Eſtate; but aſſur'd me that vvhen vve came to Dublin he vvould Joynture me in 600l. a Year good Land; and that he vvould enter into a Deed of Settlement, or Contract here, for the Performance of it.

Further reading

• “jointure”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French jointure, from Latin iūnctūra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʒwɛ̃.tyʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

jointure f (plural jointures)

1. (anatomy) joint

Related terms

• joindre
• joint

Further reading

• “jointure”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.