Meanings
- not comparablePertaining to the state of pairing together sexually; said of animals during periods of procreation and while rearing their offspring.
- not comparablePertaining to a family structure in which couples pair off (sometimes only temporarily for the rearing of children), but do not practice exclusive cohabitation, instead living with others in a communal household.
We should note that matriarchy is easily explained as the almost inevitable successor of syndiasmian marriage or, more generally, of polyandry.
2010, Gabriel Tarde, Terry N. Clark, Gabriel Tarde On Communication and Social Influence, page 1282 more examples
Two forms of the family had appeared before the syndiasmian, and created two great systems of consanguinity, or rather two distinct forms of the same system, but this third family neither produced a new system nor sensibly modified the old. The syndiasmian family continued for an unknown period of time enveloped in a system of consanguinity, false, in the main, to existing relationships, and which it had no power to break. This was reserved for monogamy, the coming power, able to dissolve the fabric.
1906, Philip Rappaport, Looking Forward, page 33Under these influences arose the Syndiasmian, or third general type of the family, based upon the marriage of single pairs, often temporary and without exclusive cohabitation.
2020, George Elliott Howard, A History of Matrimonial Institutions: Volume 1, page 51
Origin
- Ancient Greekσυνδυασμός“combination of two, copulation”
- Englishsyndyasmian
From Ancient Greek συνδυασμός (sunduasmós, “combination of two, copulation”), from συν- (sun-) + δυάς (duás).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
syndyasmian. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/syndyasmian
“syndyasmian.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/syndyasmian. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “syndyasmian,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/syndyasmian.
Source: syndyasmian on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.