Forms: 4–5 avowter, avowtrie, -tri, -tery, avouterye; 4–6 avoutrie, -try; 5 avutrie, avoutri, -trye, -terie, avowtrye; adultery, -trye (only in Sc. and north. writers); 5–6 advoutrye, -tery, -terye, advoultrye, 5–7 advowtry, -trie, advoutrie, -try, 6 advoutri, -treye, adoutry, aduoultrie, -try, adoultry, 6–7 adultry, -trie, -terie, 6– adultery. [a. OFr. avouterie, avoutrie, earlier aöuterie, aülterie, n. of condition f. avoutre, aöutre:—L. adulter, see -Y; found alongside of avoutire, earlier aöutire, aültere:—L. adultērium, occas. also in Eng. as avowter. In 14th-c. Fr. a learned form adultère was formed afresh on L. adulterium, and gradually superseded the popular avoutire and avouterie; under the same influence the Eng. avoutrie was progressively refashioned as advoutrie or aduoutrie, aduoultrie, adoultry, adultry, adultery, thus ending in a direct Eng. repr. of adulterium, and practically a distinct word from avoutrie, though connected with it by every kind of intermediate form. This latinized type had also been used by Scotch and northern writers as early as 1430. Advowtry survived to 1688.]
1. Violation of the marriage bed; the voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with one of the opposite sex, whether unmarried, or married to another (the former case being technically designated single, the latter double adultery).
1366. Maundev., 249. Ȝif ony man or woman be taken in Avowtery or Fornycacyoun, anon thei sleen him.
c. 1370. Wyclif, Agst. Begging Friers (1608), 31. Fryars suffren mightie men, fro yeare to yeare, live in avowtrie.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Parson’s T., 766. Thilke stynkynge synne of lecherie that men clepe auowtrie (v.r. avoutrie, auouterie, advoutrie2, aduoutre).
1400. Apol. for Loll., 78. if þe first woman may not proue her contract, þan þe secound schal be his wif, bi resoun of avowter.
c. 1418. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 247. So overset with avutrie.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VI. ii. 87. Bot a wykkdy wyf had he Ðat levyd in-til Adultery.
c. 1460. Cov. Myst. (1841), 10. A woman … The whiche was taken in adultrye.
1485. Richard III., in Paston Lett., 883, III. 317. Doughter unto Dame Katryne Swynford and of her in double Avoutry gottyn.
1491. Caxton, How to Die, 6. The woman that was taken in aduoultrye.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froissart, xliii. II. 139. She was but a bastarde, and borne in aduoutrye.
1533. Elyot, Castel of Helth, III. xii. 67. Hym, which had committed adoutry with his mayster’s wyfe.
1541. Barnes, Wks., 1573, 187/2. That you shal depose a kyng, bycause hee lyueth in aduoultry.
1570. Ascham, Scholem. (1863), 81. Knightes that do kill … and commit fowlest aduoulteres.
1611. Bible, John viii. 4. This woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. [Wycl. avoutri, Tind. advoutry, Cranm. aduoutry, Genev., Rhem. aduoutrie, Gen. 1590 adulterie.]
1641. W. Cartwright, Ordinary, IV. v. (1651), 75. There shall be no Advowtry in my ward.
1648. Herrick, To his Book, Wks. 1859, 409. She’l runne to all adulteries.
1660. R. Coke, Elem. Power & Subj., 194. Deadly sin, of Fornication, Avowtry, and such like.
1677. Baxter, Lett., in Answ. Dodwell, 114. I heard, when I was young, of one, or two, that for Adultery stood in a White Sheet in the Church.
1688. Pol. Ballads (1860), I. 265. As long as you’ve pence, y’ need scruple no offence, For murder, advoutery, treason.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. viii. 327. Adultery was long unknown at Sparta.
b. Extended in Scripture, to unchastity generally; and by various theologians opprobriously used of any marriages of which they disapproved, as of a widower, a nun, a Christian with a Jewess, etc. (Interpretative adultery). Also fig. in Script. to giving the affections to idols, idol-worship; and in Eccl. writers to the enjoyment by any one of a benefice during the life-time of the legal incumbent, or to the translation of a bishop from one see to another (Spiritual adultery). See Chambers, Cycl. Supp., 1753, s.v.
1388. Wyclif, Jer. iii. 9. Bi liȝtnesse of hir fornicacioun sche defoulide the erthe, and dide auowtrie with a stoon, and with a tree.
1590. Bible (Genev.), Matt. v. 28. Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adulterie with her already in his heart.
1611. Bible, Jer. iii. 9. Shee defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stockes.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. A kind of second marriage, which was esteemed a degree of adultery.
1872. Freeman, Hist. Ess. (ed. 2), 17. He is rebuked by Saint Dunstan who pronounces the marriage to be mere adultery.
¶ ‘Used in ancient customs for the punishment or fine imposed for that offence, or the privilege of prosecuting for it.’ Chambers, Cycl. Supp., 1753, whence in subseq. Encyclopædias and Dicts. But Spelman, who is quoted for it, gives it only (and that erroneously) as a use of the L. adulterium.
† 2. Adulteration, debasement, corruption. Obs.
1609. B. Jonson, Epicene, I. i. Such sweet neglect more taketh me, Than all th’ Adulteries of Art.
1673. Lady’s Calling, II. iii. § 20. 92. Nor must she think to cure this by any the little adulteries of art: she may buy beauty, and yet can never make it her own.
