[SON sb. and LAW sb.1 3 c.]
1. A daughter’s husband. Also † son in the law, son by law. (Cf. SON-LAW.)
α. 13[?]. Cursor M., 7650 (Gött.). Dauid his sone-in-law for to sla.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 219. Valter, Steward of Scotland, That … sone-in-law wes to the king.
c. 1425. Eng. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 672. Hic gener, sone-in-law.
1530. Palsgr., 272/2. Sonne in lawe, gendre.
1573. Will T. Daye (Somerset Ho.). My son in lawe Robert Dobledaie.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, III. 144. The brides father … sendes great store of daintie dishes vnto his sonne in law.
1639. Bury Wills (Camden), 180. I give unto my sonne-in-law … my second best gown.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 13 Feb. She left my son-in-law … the mansion house of Adscomb.
1743. Francis, trans. Horace, Odes, II. iv. 16. I. 197.
| Her Parents dear, of gentle Race, | |
| Shall not their Son-in-law disgrace. |
1811. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), I. v. 147. How should you like him for a son-in-law?
1813. Southey, Nelson, I. 87. Josiah, his son-in-law, went with him.
β. 1545. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 12. Johne Buchquhannane son in the law to the said Lord Johne Levingstoun.
[1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 54. Soon to king Priamus by law.]
† 2. ? A reputed son. Obs.
1591. Lodge, Catharos, B 4 b. How doth the father of your sonne in law?
† 3. A stepson. Obs.
1618. Bolton, Florus, IV. xii. (1636), 317–8. Cæsar throughly quietted all the Nations of that tract … by his Sonne in Law, whose mother hee had married, Claudius Drusus.
1731. Fielding, Mod. Husb., II. iii. I hope you will pardon an intercession, my dear, for a son-in-law, which I should not be guilty for a son of my own.
1738. trans. Guazzo’s Art Conversation, 21. The step-mother … can’t discern the good qualities of her son-in-law.
Hence Son-in-lawship.
1886. T. Hardy, Woodlanders (1887), II. ix. 163. It immersed him so deeply in son-in-lawship to Melbury.
