hymeneal

comparative more hymeneal · superlative most hymeneal

1. Pertaining to marriage.

   I consider these more as the privileges of age, than as part of the hymeneal dowry.

   1806, Jane West, Letters to a Young Lady, volume I

   5 more examples

   It seems to me that girls ought to be early taught to discriminate, between the characteristic of a hymeneal connexion and of a dishonourable one apparently resembling it.

   1831, Anna Maria Winter, Thoughts on the Moral Order of Nature, vol. III, IV.3.vii

   "My dear Copperfield," said Mr. Micawber. "This is luxurious. This is a way of life which reminds me of the period when I was myself in a state of celibacy, and Mrs. Micawber had not yet been solicited to plight her faith at the "Hymeneal" altar."

   1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “Mr. Micawber’s Gauntlet”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 290

   Mrs. Gereth evidently thought in these days of little but things hymeneal; for she broke out with sudden rapture in the middle of the week: "I know what they'll do: they will marry, but they'll go and live at Waterbath!"

   1897, Henry James, The Spoils of Poynton

   In the fulness of time there was an eruption of the merry-makers to the sidewalk. The uninvited guests enveloped and permeated them, and upon the night air rose joyous cries, congratulations, laughter and unclassified noises born of McGary's oblations to the hymeneal scene.

   1906 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “From the Cabby’s Seat”, in The Four Million, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co, →OCLC, page 165

   Is it so difficult to wait until you are out of the register office to exchange some home-made vows and a selection of inspiring hymeneal ditties - To His Coy Mistress, for instance, or some lines from The Hollow Men?

   2005 June 23, Catherine Bennett, The Guardian

2. Pertaining to sexual relations.

   Although the whole earth, not we alone, is moved by passions hymeneal, and everything terrestrial has come into being by the one common road, yet there is that ridiculous tendency to close the eyes and turn away the head as if there were something unclean in nature itself.

   1911, Theodore Dreiser, chapter XI, in Jennie Gerhardt

3. anatomyOf or pertaining to the hymen.

   ‘It doesn't seem to qualify as a haemorrhage,’ he said, with his usual cocky certainty. ‘Just heavy hymeneal bleeding, I'd say.’

   1978, AS Byatt, The Virgin in the Garden, page 422

plural hymeneals

1. A hymn, song or poem in honour of a wedding.

   For her white virgins hymeneals sing, / To sounds of heav'nly harps she dies away, / And melts in visions of eternal day.

   1717, Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard