Marriage is the legal and often religious union of two people as partners in a personal relationship. It can also mean a very close or successful combination of two things.
From Old French 'mariage', from 'marier' meaning 'to marry', from Latin 'maritare'. The institution is ancient, but who can marry and what it means has changed a lot over time.
We talk about 'a marriage of flavors' or 'a marriage of ideas' because the word has become a metaphor for deep combination. The legal rules around marriage shift with culture, but the basic idea of a formal, recognized partnership is surprisingly universal.
Marriage has long been a legal and social institution structured around gender roles, often granting men greater property rights, legal authority, and social freedom while subordinating women. Many legal systems historically treated wives as dependents or property, and excluded same‑sex and gender‑diverse couples entirely.
Use marriage to refer to legally or socially recognized partnerships without assuming heterosexual or binary‑gender pairs. When discussing roles within marriage, avoid stereotyping tasks or authority by gender and recognize diverse family structures.
["union","partnership","spousal relationship"]
Women’s activism has been central to reforms in marital law, including property rights, divorce rights, protections from marital violence, and recognition of diverse couples.
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