From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Bigamy \Big"a*my\, noun [OE. bigamie, fr. L. bigamus twice married; bis twice + Gr. ? marriage; prob. akin to Skt. j[=a]mis related, and L. gemini twins, the root meaning to bind, join: cf. F. bigamie. Cf. {Digamy}.] (Law) The offense of marrying one person when already legally married to another. --Wharton.
Note: It is not strictly correct to call this offense bigamy: it more properly denominated polygamy, i. e., having a plurality of wives or husbands at once, and in several statutes in the United States the offense is classed under the head of polygamy. In the canon law bigamy was the marrying of two virgins successively, or one after the death of the other, or once marrying a widow. This disqualified a man for orders, and for holding ecclesiastical offices. Shakespeare uses the word in the latter sense. --Blackstone. --Bouvier.
Base declension and loathed bigamy. --Shak.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: having two spouses at the same time
2: the offense of marrying someone while you have a living spouse from whom no valid divorce has occurred
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
20 Moby Thesaurus words for "bigamy": beena marriage, common-law marriage, companionate marriage, concubinage, deuterogamy, left-handed marriage, levirate, leviration, love match, marriage of convenience, monandry, monogamy, monogyny, morganatic marriage, picture marriage, polyandry, polygamy, polygyny, trial marriage, trigamy
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
BIGAMY, noun A mistake in taste for which the wisdom of the future will adjudge a punishment called trigamy.
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