bride price

plural bride prices · alternative bride-price · alternative brideprice

1. In some cultures, a sum of money or other valuables paid by a bridegroom or on his behalf to the family of the bride.

   It is well known in Artas as in other villages exactly what the bride price should customarily be—so much for a cousin bride, so much more for a village bride, more still for a stranger.

   1937, Grace Crowfoot, “Custom and Folk Tale in Palestine. The Dowry or Bride Price,”, in Folklore, volume 48, number 1, page 31

   2 more examples

   Taiqian county in Henan province has issued guidelines saying grooms should pay no more than 60,000 yuan (HK$67,000) as a “bride price”, the Chinese tradition that a male partner offers money to his fiancée’s family to secure their marriage.

   2017 January 4, Liu Zhen, “Don’t pay over 60,000 yuan for a bride, say Chinese officials”, in South China Morning Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Jan 2017, China

   Their fares across the Atlantic were paid on the understanding that when they married, their Virginian husbands would pay a bride price for them of 150 pounds of tobacco, then worth about £22 (perhaps seven years’ salary for a domestic maid).

   2018 November, Lucy Moore, “Founding Mothers”, in Literary Review

   Synonyms: bride gift, bride-gift, bridegift, bride wealth, bride-wealth, bridewealth, bride token, dower · Antonyms: dowry