Levitate vs Levirate - What's the difference?
levitate | levirate |
To cause to rise in the air and float, as if in defiance of gravity.
To be suspended in the air, as if in defiance of gravity.
Having to do with one's husband's brother.
(countable) A marriage between a widow and her deceased husband's brother or, sometimes, heir.
(anthropology) The institution of levirate marriage.
* 1894 , Edward Westermarck, The History of Human Marriage , second ed., Macmillan and Co., page 510,
* 1986 , John S. Scullion, translator, Genesis 37-50: A Continental Commentary by Claus Westermann, Fortress Press, ISBN 080069502X, page 52,
* 2006 , Gary P. Ferraro, Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective , Thomson Wadsworth, ISBN 0495030392, page 219,
As a verb levitate
is to cause to rise in the air and float, as if in defiance of gravity.As an adjective levirate is
having to do with one's husband's brother.As a noun levirate is
(countable) a marriage between a widow and her deceased husband's brother or, sometimes, heir.levitate
English
Verb
(levitat)- The magician levitated the woman.
- The guru claimed that he could levitate .
levirate
English
Adjective
(-)Usage notes
* This adjective is used almost exclusively as part of the phrase (levirate marriage).Noun
(en noun)- And it is, he says, impossible not to believe that the Levirate —that is, the practice of marrying a dead brother's widow—is derived from polyandry.
- It is only a secondary purpose of the levirate that the property of the deceased passes on to the one who is heir to his name, and is probably a later accretion.
- The levirate is found in patrilineal societies in which the bride marries into her husband's family while essentially severing her ties with her original family.