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Created page with 'File:lighterstill.jpgright|frame ==Origin== French, from Middle French, from past participle of ''fiancer'' to promise, betrot...'
[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Long_Engagement-A.Hughes-1859.jpg|right|frame]]

==Origin==
French, from Middle French, from past participle of ''fiancer'' to [[promise]], betroth, from Old French ''fiancier'', from [[fiance]] promise, [[trust]], from ''fier'' to trust, from Vulgar Latin ''fidare'', alteration of [[Latin]] ''fidere''
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century 1838]
==Definitions==
*1: a man [[engaged]] to be [[married]]
==Description==
An [[engagement]] or ''betrothal'' is a [[promise]] to marry, and also the period of [[time]] between [[proposal]] and [[marriage]] – which may be lengthy or [[trivial]]. During this period, a couple is said to be betrothed, ''affianced'', engaged to be married, or simply engaged. [[Future]] brides and grooms may be called the ''betrothed'', a [[wife]]-to-be or ''husband''-to-be, ''fiancées'' or fiancés, respectively (from the French word ''fiancé''). The duration of the [[courtship]] varies vastly.

Long engagements were once common in [[formal]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arranged_marriage arranged marriages] and it was not uncommon for [[parents]] betrothing children to arrange such many years before the engaged couple were old enough to [[marry]].

The [[origins]] of European engagement in [[marriage]] [[practice]] is found in the Jewish law ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah Torah]), first exemplified by [[Abraham]], and outlined in the last [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud Talmudic] tractate of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashim Nashim] (Women) order, where marriage consists of two separate [[acts]], called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erusin ''erusin''] (or ''kiddushin'', meaning ''sanctification''), which is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betrothal betrothal] [[ceremony]], and nissu'in or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupah ''chupah'', the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding actual ceremony for the marriage]. ''Erusin'' changes the couple's interpersonal status, while ''nissu'in'' brings about the [[legal]] consequences of the [[change]] of [[status]]. (However, in the Talmud and other sources of Jewish law there is also a process, called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shidduch ''shidduchin''], corresponding to what today is called engagement. Marrying without such an agreement is considered immoral.[2] To complicate matters,''erusin'' in modern Hebrew means engagement, not betrothal.)

This was later adopted in Ancient Greece as the ''gamos'' and ''engeysis'' [[rituals]], although unlike in [[Judaism]], the contract made in front of [[witness]] was only verbal. The giving of a ring was eventually borrowed from Judaism by Roman marriage law, with the ''fiancé'' presenting it after swearing the oath of marriage [[intent]], and presenting of the [[gifts]] at the engagement party.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiance]

[[Category: Sociology]]
[[Category: Anthropology]]

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