a. The designation of property, held by one spouse (historically the husband) and jointly used by both spouses, to be provided to the other spouse (historically the wife) in the event of the death of the spouse holding the property.
b. The property so designated.
2. The act of joining or the state of being joined.
[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin iūnctūra, joint; see JUNCTURE.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2018 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.