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bigamy
The offense of having two husbands or wives at the same time, the one de jure and the other de facto. Strictly speaking, bigamy means "twice married", as its derivative shows. This was never an offense at common law; it was made an offense by the canonists. Polygamy is the proper term; but, by long usage, bigamy has come to mean the state of a man who has two wives, or a woman who has two husbands, at the same time.
Source : William C. Anderson, A Dictionary of Law (1893)
Language : English