feme covert

UK/fɛmˈkʌvət/

noun

A married woman.

OriginAnglo-Norman feme →
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Meanings

nounfeme covert (plural femes covert or femes coverts)

plural femes covert · plural femes coverts

  1. historicallawA married woman.

    A deed of a feme covert, to be valid, must be executed by the husband also.

    1851, Thomas W Waterman, American Chancery Digest, volume II
    2 more examples

    […]—you, Diana Vernon, spinstress, not being a femme covert; and being a convict popish recusant, are bound to repair to your own dwelling, and that by the nearest way, under penalty of being held felon to the king—[…]

    1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, pages 213–214

    Connecticut courts failed to recognize feme couvert property rights until 1723, when the legislature finally passed an act significantly reforming the law on conveyancing.

    1986, Marylynn Salmon, Women and the Law of Property in Early America

Origin

  1. Anglo-Normanfeme“woman”
  2. Englishfeme covert

From Anglo-Norman feme (“woman”) covert (“covered, protected”).

More words from Anglo-Norman

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Finnish aviovaimo
  • aviovaimolaw, a married woman
Russian заму́жняя же́нщина
  • заму́жняя же́нщина (zamúžnjaja žénščina)law, a married woman
Spanish mujer casada
  • mujer casadalaw, a married woman
Cite this entry
APA

feme covert. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/feme%20covert

MLA

“feme covert.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/feme%20covert. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “feme covert,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/feme%20covert.

Source: feme covert on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.