Pronounced: PILL-kroh, noun
Notes: I didn’t know what this was (but it is common these days)
Yesterday’s word
The word morganatic means “of or relating to a marriage between a royal or noble and a person of inferior rank whose children cannot succeed to royalty or nobility”
First usage
Our word came into English in the early 1700s
Background / Comments
Our word makes me think of Edward VIII – he wanted to marry Mrs Simpson, but she was a divorcee with two living husbands. At that time, the Church of England disapproved of marrying a divorcee who had a living spouse (and as king, Edward would be the head of the Church of England). One thought was to have the marriage declared to be morganatic, but England did not (and, as far as I know, still does not) recognize morganatic marriage. With no solution, Edward VIII abdicated and married her. Our word came from the New Latin word morganatica (morning gift) – it referred to a gift that a new husband would give to his bride on the morning after the marriage. The New Latin expression matrimonium ad morganaticam (marriage with morning gift) was the term for a morganatic marriage – because that is all the wife of such a marriage could expect.
