The story
- Proto-Indo-European · derived from*dayh₂wḗr“one's brother-in-law”
- English todaylevirate
From Latin lēvir (“husband's brother, brother-in-law”) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dayh₂wḗr (“one's brother-in-law”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.