Forms: 4–7 ioynt-, ioint-, ioynct-, (4 ioyngt-, 5 ioyntt-), -ure, -er, (4–6 -our, 5–6 -or(e, 6 -yre, -ur; 5 iuntor, yonture, 6 ionctour, gintur): 7 joinct-, 7–8 joynt-, 7– jointure. [a. F. jointure:—L. junctūra, f. junct-, ppl. stem of jungĕre to join; see -URE.]
† 1. Joining, junction, conjunction, union. Obs.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. pr. v. 32 (Camb. MS.). Ioyngture of sowle and body.
1550. Veron, Godly Sayings (1846), 47. Lette hym notte goo from the joynture and compage of the members.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 326. That place where the ioincture is of the shoulders to the nape of the neck.
1606. Ford, Fames Memoriall, B ij. To … sympathize in ioincture with thy courage.
2. concr. A joining, a junction, a joint. Now rare.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. xxxvii. 7. I prophecied … and loo! a styryng to gydre, and bones wenten to boones, eche to his ioynture.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 109. Þei ben bounde togidere bi oon ioynture, þe which þat strecchiþ from bifore to bihynde to þe lenkþe of þe heed, þe which is clepid sagittales. Ibid., 157. Alle þese boonys … þat ben in ioynturis, as þe schuldris, elbowis [etc.].
1413. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. xxxi. 80. The necke … is the ioynture of the hede and the body and maketh them bothe one.
1594. Daniel, Cleopatra, III. ii. Her disioyned Iointures as undone, Let fall her weak dissolved Limbs Support.
1609. Bible (Douay), 1 Chron. xxii. 3. Yron for the nayles of the gates, and for the ioyninges and ioynctures.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., III. 30/1. The jointures and commissures of both halves shou’d perfectly tally to each other.
1888. Lafcadio Hearn in Harper’s Mag., Aug., 332/2. A wall whose every jointure is being attacked by vigorous little weeds.
† 3. The holding of an estate by two or more persons in joint-tenancy. Obs.
[1533–4. Act 25 Hen. VIII., c. 13 § 7. Euerie personne … which … shall haue iuncture in vse or in possession … of or in any manours.]
1574. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 57 b. He that surviveth shal have onely the whole tenancy after such estate as he hath if ye iointure bee continued.
1601–2. Fulbecke, 1st Pt. Parall., 30. If lands be giuen to two, and the heirs of one of them, this is a good iointure, & the one hath freehold & the other fee simple, and if hee which hath the fee die, he that hath the frehold shal haue the entierty.
1660. Bonde, Scut. Reg., 223. If Lands are given to the King and a subject, or if there be two jointenants and the Crown descend to one of them, the Jointure is severed, and they are Tenants in Common.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. xii. 180. Such … an estate is called an estate in joint-tenancy, and sometimes an estate in jointure.
4. spec. a. orig. The holding of property to the joint use of a husband and wife for life or in tail, as a provision for the latter, in the event of her widowhood. Hence, by extension, b, A sole estate limited to the wife, being ‘a competent livelihood of freehold for the wife of lands and tenements, to take effect upon the death of the husband for the life of the wife at least’ (Coke upon Littleton, 36 b).
1451. Rolls Parlt., V. 218/1. This Acte shall not extende to the prejudice of … the Quene of hir Dower, joyntour or freeholder, to hir by you graunted.
a. 1466. Paston Lett., II. 79. The maner of Estlexham, the qwych is parte of my juntor.
1513. More, Rich. III., Wks. (1557), 58. Yt she might be restored vnto such smal landes as her late husband had giuen her in iointure.
1535. Act 27 Hen. VIII., c. x. § 4. In every suche case every woman maryed havyng such Ioynter … shal not clayme to have eny Dower of the residue of the Landes … that … were her said husbondes.
1556. R. Arden’s Will, in French, Shaks. Geneal. (1869), 470. I will that my wyfe shall have butt iij.li. vjs. viij.d. and her gintur in Snytterfylde.
1684. Wood, Life, 11 May (O. H. S.), III. 95. He had married a widdow of 700 li. per annum joynter.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. viii. 137. A jointure … strictly speaking, signifies a joint estate, limited to both husband and wife, but in common acceptation extends also to a sole estate, limited to the wife only.
1876. Digby, Real Prop., vi. 295. It became a common practice for a man upon his marriage to convey lands to feoffees to the joint use of himself and his wife for life or in tail, by which means a provision for the remainder of her life was secured to the wife. This was called a jointure.
† b. Used as equivalent to dowry: see DOWRY 2.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VII. ccxxix. 259. For the withholdyng of the dowre, or ioyntoure, of his firste doughter, maryed vnto Wyllyam ye Kynges sone.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 280. I am perswaded yat my faire daughter shal be wel maryed, for there is none, that will or can demaund a greater ioynter then Beautie.
1598. Florio, Indotato, without a dowrie or iointer.
1615. J. Stephens, Satyr. Ess., 364. She would make likewise a thousand pound Joyncture of her behaviour only, and Court-carriage.
5. Comb., as jointure-castle, -house, one settled upon a woman as a jointure (sense 4); † jointure-water = joint-water, synovia (see JOINT sb. 15).
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 324/2. We must not to suddaynly restrayne the Synnue, or Ioyncture-water.
1773. Johnson, in Boswell, 18 Sept. Most of the great families of England have a secondary residence, which is called a jointure-house.
1830. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. IV. (1863), 273. Leaving the great town in which she had hitherto resided, and coming to occupy the family jointure-house at Oakhampstead.
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos (1877), III. ix. 73. Within this castle lay the little King, who was thus conveyed to her jointure castle at Stirling.
