bigam

bigame, bygame

From Latin bigamus (“twice married”): compare French bigame. See bigamy.

bigam (plural bigams)

1. (rare, archaic) A bigamist, or one who has married a widow.
   • 1502, anonymous author, The Ordinary of Christian Men‎^[1], London: Wynkyn de Worde, page 234:

     If he were irreguler, suspende, excommunycate, bygame, illegittime, or concubinarie open and knowen, & by the consequens suspende at the tyme & houre that he receyved the dygnyte, the cure, or prelacyon he synneth mortally and is contynually in deedly synne...

   • 1823, A. Clarke, The Latter Day Luminary‎^[2], volume IV, number X, page 344:

     The Asiatic queens, sultanas, and bigams, scarcely ever appear in public. They abide in the Haram, in the greatest luxury and spelendour...

   • 1744, John Lewis, The Life of the Learned and Right Reverend Reynold Pecock, S.T.P., Lord Bishop of St. Asaph and Chichester, London: John Moore, page 286:

     "Some parts of the scripture teach us positive ordinances of Christ, as are the sacraments; and some parts thereof teach us ordinances of some apostle, as the law of bigamy, or St. Paul 's ordaining, that a bigam should not be a deacon or priest, and that a woman vowe not chastity before the sixtieth year of her age."

   • 2024, Criticker Films & TV‎^[3], A notre regrettable époux:

     On the death of Alexander, her husband, Hermione, a chatelaine, discovers that he was a bigam on the one hand, and a swindler on the other.

• “bigam”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

bīgam

1. accusative singular of bīga

Borrowed from French bigame.

bigam m (plural bigami, feminine equivalent bigamă)

1. bigamist