maidenry en · NOUN
Etymology
From maiden + -ry.
Meanings
-
(uncountable) collectively, maidens, all the single women
By this conventional evolutionary psychology script, the man who skips from one nubile spouse to another over time is, like the sultan who hoards the local maidenry in a single convenient location, simply seeking to “maximize his reproductive fitness,” to sire as many children as possible with as many wives as possible.
2009 September 1, Natalie Angier, “Skipping Spouse to Spouse Isn’t Just a Man’s Game”, in New York Times: