espousal

From Middle English espousal, espousaille, from Old French espousailles, from Latin sponsalia (“a betrothal”), neuter plural of sponsalis, from spōnsus (“one betrothed, a spouse”); see spouse.

espousal (countable and uncountable, plural espousals)

1. A betrothal.
   • 1949, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces:

     So he pressed her again and again with advice on the matter of espousals; but she ever opposed to him refusals, till at last she turned upon him angrily and cried, "O my father, if thou name matrimony to me once more, I will go into my chamber and take a sword, and, fixing its hilt on the ground, will set its point to my waist; then I will press upon it, till it come forth from my back, and so slay myself."

2. A wedding ceremony.
3. Adoption of a plan, cause, or idea.

• espouse
• spouse
• sponsor

• “espousal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “espousal”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “espousal”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• sepalous