Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CON-CU'BI-NAGE, n. [Fr. See Concubine.]

The act or practice of cohabiting, as man and woman, in sexual commerce, without the authority of law or a legal marriage. In a more general sense, this word is used to express any criminal or prohibited sexual commerce, including adultery, incest, and fornication. In some countries, concubinage is marriage of an inferior kind, or performed with less solemnity than a true or formal marriage; or marriage with a woman of inferior condition, to whom the husband does not convey his rank or quality. This is said to be still in use in Germany. – Encyc. In law, concubinage is used as an exception against her that sueth for dower; in which it is alledged that she was not lawfully married to the man in whose lands she seeks to be endowed, but that she was his concubine. – Cowel.