In Roman law, a transaction in which one person could buy a wife into marriage through a ceremonial purchase.
From Latin coemptio (from co- + emere, to buy). This is a Latin legal term preserved in English legal and historical texts about Roman marriage customs.
Coemptio reveals how Roman marriage was a legal transaction—a woman could be 'bought' into marriage as a formality, showing how language and custom embedded gender hierarchies into the very structure of legal ceremonies.
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