a mensa et thoro

/eɪ ˈmɛnsə ˌɛt ˈθɔːɹəʊ/

adjective

That does not dissolve the marriage bond, but merely authorizes the husband and wife to live apart from each other.

OriginLatin a mensa et thoro →
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Meanings

adjectivea mensa et thoro (not comparable)
  1. historicalnot comparablelawThat does not dissolve the marriage bond, but merely authorizes the husband and wife to live apart from each other.

    A divorce a mensa et thoro, obtained by the wife, is not a bar to her right of dower.

    1864, Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, Austin Abbott, A digest of New York Statutes and Reports: From the earliest period to the year 1860, 3rd edition, volume II, page 533
    2 more examples

    The long-defunct possibility of a divorce for adultery allowing remarriage was proposed anew by Cranmer,²⁵ who considered that a divorce a mensa et thoro offended against the duty to cohabit insisted on by the Church.

    2003, B. J. Sokol, Mary Sokol, Shakespeare, Law, and Marriage, page 144

    Under specific circumstances, two other kinds of marriage termination, both called divorce (divorcium), could be declared by the ecclesiastical courts of late medieval England: divorce a mensa et thoro ( “from table and bed”) and divorce a vinculo (“from the bond”).[…]Divorce a mensa et thoro resulted in what we would term separation.

    2006, Shannon McSheffrey, Marriage, Sex, And Civic Culture in Late Medieval London, page 23
adverba mensa et thoro (not comparable)
  1. historicalnot comparablelawSuch as not to dissolve the marriage bond, but merely to authorize the husband and wife to live apart from each other.

    By the recent statute 20 & 21 Viet c. 85, § 7, no divorce can in future be granted à mensa et thoro, but a decree of judicial separation is to be pronounced, having the like effect.

    1867, Alexander Mansfield Burrill, “Divorce a mensa et thoro”, in A Law Dictionary and Glossary, page 504

Origin

  1. Latina mensa et thoro“from board and bed”
  2. Englisha mensa et thoro

Learned borrowing from Latin a mensa et thoro (“from board and bed”).

More words from Latin

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

a mensa et thoro. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/a%20mensa%20et%20thoro

MLA

“a mensa et thoro.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/a%20mensa%20et%20thoro. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “a mensa et thoro,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/a%20mensa%20et%20thoro.

Source: a mensa et thoro on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.