wedlock

noun

Etymology: From Middle English wedlok, wedlocke (“wedlock, marriage, matrimony”), from Old English wedlāc (“marriage vow, pledge, plighted troth, wedlock”). By surface analysis, wed + -lock.

1. The state of being married.

   “If I were about to marry, I should try it; that is, if I were a student of girldom with a view to wedlock for in truth, I am a marrying man.”

   “Nothing Jesus Christ more quemeth (pleaseth) Than love in wedlock where men it yemeth (keepeth);”

2. A wife; a married woman.

   “that lovely payre, / Enlincked fast in wedlockes loyall bond, / Bold Marinell with Florimell the fayre […]”

   “Which of these is thy Wedlock, Menelaus? thy Hellen? thy Lucrece? that we may do her Honour; mad Boy?”