Dictionary

feme covert en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /fɛmˈkʌvət/ (UK)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman feme (“woman”) covert (“covered, protected”).

Meanings

1. (historical) A married woman.
   • […]—you, Diana Vernon, spinstress, not being a femme covert; and being a convict popish recusant, are bound to repair to your own dwelling, and that by the nearest way, under penalty of being held felon to the king—[…] 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, pages 213–214:
   • A deed of a feme covert, to be valid, must be executed by the husband also. 1851, Thomas W Waterman, American Chancery Digest, volume II:
   • Connecticut courts failed to recognize feme couvert property rights until 1723, when the legislature finally passed an act significantly reforming the law on conveyancing. 1986, Marylynn Salmon, Women and the Law of Property in Early America:

Forms

Relateds

feme sole merchant · feme sole

Translations (3)

ru заму́жняя же́нщина (law, a married woman) · es mujer casada (law, a married woman) · fi aviovaimo (law, a married woman)