替朋友翻译一篇非法同居的文章,里面提到“重婚”一词,大脑随机反映“double marriage”。
心理明白这是按字面直译而来,可能不准确,但还是抱有一丝希望。一查,竟然有专词对应,叫bigamy。
再想也是,婚姻制度久远,重婚必定是古已有之,专门造个词给它才恰当。
从字面来看,bi是“双”的意思,如bilateral (bilateral contract)。gamy查了一下,作词根是“婚姻”的意思,如monogamy就是一夫一妻制,polygamy则是多偶制。
根据《布莱克法律词典》的解释,bigamy是犯罪行为,但以故意为要件。Osborn词典说一方认为此前婚姻无效,并且主观善意的,可作为抗辩理由。
Bigamy, the act of marrying one person while legally married to another. It is a criminal offence if it is committed knowingly.
布莱克还说,polygamy是指两个或两个以上的配偶,有时等于bigamy,也称为plural marriage。
Polygamy, the state or practice of having more than one spouse simultaneously.
历史上认为婚姻关系不可解除,所以即便未同时拥有两个以上配偶,如配偶死亡后再婚,也称为polygamy,或successive polygamy。
重婚比较负面,但在检索过程中,也发现一桩美满姻缘,主人公还用了bigamy来调侃:
During her life Elizabeth Barrett Browning conjectured that Browning would indulge in some "feeble bigamy" after her death.Though Browning outlived his wife by twenty-eight years,he never remarried.
这里转一下百度介绍吧,有兴趣的可以去看: