levirate

1. not comparableHaving to do with one's husband's brother.

plural levirates

1. countableA marriage between a widow and her deceased husband's brother or, sometimes, heir.
2. anthropologyThe institution of levirate marriage.

   And it is, he says, impossible not to believe that the Levirate—that is, the practice of marrying a dead brother's widow—is derived from polyandry.

   1894, Edward Westermarck, The History of Human Marriage, 2nd edition, Macmillan and Co., page 510

   2 more examples

   It is only a secondary purpose of the levirate that the property of the deceased passes on to the one who is heir to his name, and is probably a later accretion.

   1986, Claus Westermann, translated by John S. Scullion, Genesis 37-50: A Continental Commentary, Fortress Press, →ISBN, page 52

   The levirate is found in patrilineal societies in which the bride marries into her husband's family while essentially severing her ties with her original family.

   2006, Gary P. Ferraro, Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective, Thomson Wadsworth, →ISBN, page 219