[a. F. concubinage (15th c. in Littré), f. concubin: see -AGE.] The cohabiting of a man and a woman who are not legally married; the practice of having a concubine; the state of being a concubine.
1388. Wyclif, Levit. xviii. 18. Thou schalt not take the sister of thi wijf, in to concubynage of hir.
1602. Fulbecke, Pandectes, 25. This is not concubinage, but mariage.
1667. Flecknoe, Damoiselles à la mode, II. iv. 27. How wou’d you have them begin, with Concubinage, I pray? I’m sure ’tas been the beginning of all who ’ave meant well and honestly ever since I was born.
1692. Sir T. P. Blount, Ess., 31. Indulging Concubinage to the Professors of Chastity.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V., II. II. 103. The severe and unnatural law of celibacy, to which both were equally subject, occasioned such irregularities, that in several parts of Europe the concubinage of priests was not only permitted, but enjoined.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, ii. Many women … had risen to greatness from a state of concubinage.
1845. S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., I. 277. Priests living in a state of concubinage and burthened with illegitimate children.
1883. Froude, Short Stud., IV. I. iii. 31. Clerical concubinage was still the rule in England.
b. In Roman Law: (see quot.).
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), II. III. v. 24. Concubinage, a kind of inferior marriage of which the issue were natural children, not bastards.
