jus primae noctis
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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| a white, crystalline, water-insoluble, powerful high explosive, C3H6N6O6, used chiefly in bombs and shells. |
| the estimation of something as valueless (encountered mainly as an example of one of the longest words in the English language). |
jus primae noctis
(French: "right of the lord"), a feudal right said to have existed in medieval Europe giving the lord to whom it belonged the right to sleep the first night with the bride of any one of his vassals. The custom is paralleled in various primitive societies, but the evidence of its existence in Europe is all indirect, involving records of redemption dues paid by the vassal to avoid enforcement of some lordly rights. Many intellectual investigations have been devoted to the problem. A considerable number of feudal rights were related to the vassal's marriage, particularly the lord's right to select a bride for his vassal, but these were almost invariably redeemed by a money payment, or "avail"; and it seems likely that the droit du seigneur amounted, in effect, only to another tax of this sort.
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