octogamy

octogamy

English

Etymology

From octo- +‎ -gamy.

Noun

octogamy (uncountable)

1. A marrying eight times.
   • Chaucer, The Wife of Bath's Prologue (lines 30-34)

     Eek wel I woot, he seyde myn housbonde
     Sholde lete fader and mooder, and take to me.
     But of no nombre mencion made he,
     Of bigamie, or of octogamie;
     Why should men thanne speke of it vileynie?

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for octogamy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)