| Webster's Online Dictionary |
Date "FEME-COVERT" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1828. (references) |
| Domain | Definition | ||
| Literature | 1: Women do not, like men, uncover their heads even in saluting, but bend their knee, in token of subjection. (See Salutations.) 2: Feme-covert A married woman. This does not mean a woman coverte by her husband, but a woman whose head is covered, not usual with maidens or unmarried women. In Rome unmarried women wore on their heads only a corolla (i.e. a wreath of flowers). In Greece they wore an anadema, or fillet. The Hungarian spinster is called hajadon (bare-headed). Married women, as a general rule, have always covered their head with a cap, turban, or something of the same sort, the head being covered as a badge of subjection. Hence Rebekah (Gen. xxiv. 65), being told that the man she saw was her espoused husband, took a veil and covered her head. Servants wear caps, and private soldiers in the presence of their officers cover their heads for the same reason. (See Eph. v. 22, 23.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | Top | ||