[Ads-l] bride's wealth, bride wealth, bridewealth, bride's token, bride token

[Benjamin Barrett]

Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bridewealth, 
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bride_wealth) gives "bridewealth/bride 
wealth" as an alternative for "bride price" but the Oxford Dictionary 
site doesn't have the word with or without a space.

The earliest instance I see of this word is "bride's wealth" at least as 
early as 1836. The word occurs from time to time over the following 
decades. Then "brideworth" appears in 1899, a singular appearance not 
repeated for decades. Then either two or three publications have 
"bride-wealth" in 1930.

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_price) also suggests 
"bride token," which is not on the Oxford site, either. Similarly, 
"bride's token" appears first, followed by "bride token," though there 
are many fewer hits than for "bride wealth."

BRIDE WEALTH

1. April 1836 (as per page 325)
The American Monthly Magazine, Volume 7
http://bit.ly/1ULP0BJ

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The dowry, as specified in this document, would give us no very high 
idea of the bride's wealth.
=====

2. 1867
The Smruti Chandrika on the Hindu Law of Inheritance: A Work of Especial 
Authority of the Madras School
Translated by T. Kristnasawmy Iyer, written by Devanna Bhut
http://bit.ly/1JZHXCg

P. 107=====
Received from the bridegroom or the like as the bride's wealth and in 
trust for the bride.
P. 111=====
This is received as the bride's wealth and in trust for the bride.
======

3. 1996, reprint of original publication in 1899
Andele, the Mexican-Kiowa Captive: A Story of Real Life Among the Indians
By J. J. Methvin
http://bit.ly/1JZHIHs

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Kiowa women both take advantage of and suffer within the "bridewealth" 
and easy divorce system of their culture: ....

4. 1930
a. Africa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_%28journal%29)
http://bit.ly/1ITc2kZ

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He will often make his course of action quite clear to his 
relatives-in-law by returning to them the portion of bride-wealth which 
they handed back to him on the dissolution of the marriage
=====

b. Readings in Arab Middle Eastern societies and cultures
By Abdulla M. Lutfiyya, Charles Wesley Churchill
http://bit.ly/1KoZxvk

The hyphen in this citation occurs at the end of a line, so it's not 
clear whether the word is intended to be hyphenated.

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... had developed no doubt, out of the widespread custom of paying 
bride-wealth to the tribe or family of the wife in consideration for the 
loss of her reproductive capacity and as a stabilization both of the 
union and of the relations between the two families; but is [sic] would 
seem that even before the advent of Islam the dower had come to be 
regarded ...
=====

c. Sudan Notes and Records, vol. XIII
http://bit.ly/1JkgAnF

P. 40=====
The Mbegumba say that an average bride-wealth consisted of about

P. 145=====
Such circumstances are those in which a woman leaves her husband and 
live a licentious life or in which a woman is remarried without all the 
bride-wealth being paid back to her first husband, or in which black 
magic or witchcraft have been used against one, or one has been 
assaulted without justification.
=====

BRIDE TOKEN
There appear to be hits for "bride's token" in the nineteenth century 
(http://bit.ly/1IV0NGw)

1. 1846
Rural Repository, vol. XXII
http://bit.ly/1IV0NGw
P. 76

=====
"You must put on a bright face next week, for I have bought you a white 
ribbon, and you know that it is a bride's token.
=====

2. 1900 (reprinted in 2012)
KELEA: The Surf Rider
By Alex. Stevenson Twombly
http://bit.ly/1fhOfAo

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"Remember," she said, as she touched noses with him for the last time 
and reluctantly release him from further embraces, "remember that Kelea 
will claim half your name (the bride-token), even if you flee from her 
to the farthest island toward the setting sun."
=====

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/home

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