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Poly lifestyle Dictionary

Polyfidelity sounds like two ladies lecturing you. One in each ear in high fidelity sterio. I suppose sometimes it might be the right word.
 
Here's a not-so-good word to refer to a polygamist:

plyg ( it's shortened form of polygamy; PoLYGamy): a derogatory name that some use to refer to polygamists. It's used to show hatred or contempt for the lifestyle. It may not be as bad or maybe not yet but "plyg" is sort of like some of the derogatory names that are used to refer to homosexuals and any particular race.

Source: I first learned about this word from a documentary on polygamy that's posted on YouTube. A poly mom talks about her kids being called "plyg" in school in the state of Utah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OEaRn3uHsc She started talking about it at 4:38 to 4:50 (those are minutes into the video).

This word was also used on the show Big Love, Season 3, episode 1, towards the end. Nikki (sp?) Grant was called a plyg.




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Here's an easy to come up with concept, polyphobia. Right now it only means an irrational fear of many things (http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictio ... polyphobia), but I'll add an additional definition:

polyphobia (adj. polyphobic): prejudice or irrational fear of polygamists and polygamy in general (personal note: I'm dying to call someone this for some reason : )

(I think a lot of people who are against polygamy after being shown that it's biblical may be suffering from prejudice/close-mindedness to not accept a lifestyle that's they deem as being dramatically different from theirs. Keep in mind though that polyphobia may not apply to everyone who disapproves/dislikes polygamy but for those who have no reasonable reason or even a biblical reason to base their disapproval on then you have to wonder.)
 
Re: Terms for poly lifestyles

DeeAnn said:
Ummm... I didn't see the term that I dislike the most. Potential. You know, the single woman whom the husband is dating. I think the term "potential" allows the current wife to put an emotional fence around her husband's feelings. I personally refer to my husband's girlfriend as my husband's girlfriend.

Does anyone have a different term for the relationship of "sister-wife"? For some reason, that term just doesn't sound right.

I think you and SweetLissa were looking for an alternative term for sister-wife.
I came up with an alternative word for sister-wife just today, but others have already thought of the word. Instead of using "sister-wife", a wife can call her husband's other wife a "wife-in-law". Urbandictionary.com defines a wife-in-law (although on that site they didn't put the hyphens between the words) as, "mistress, love slave, or concubine." There are other definitions as well but they're all a little insulting I think so I'll add another definition:

wife-in-law: a relational term that a wife would use to refer to another wife that her husband has...or simply, the other wife of your husband.


I posted this elsewhere but I thought it would help:

There are only 4 in-law terms that I've seen in dictionaries and that I've heard used in the English language and those are brother/sister/father/mother-in-laws (there are no cousin-in-laws, nephew-in-laws, and certainly no brother's wife-in-law in common English dictionaries)

When it comes to a wife, an in-law term would be attached to her husband's relatives or whatever relationship he has with someone within the 4 in-law terms that I mentioned that are in the dictionaries, although wife-in-law is an additional word but it’s made up. The brother of a husband would be the wife's brother-in-law. The sister of a husband would be the wife's sister-in-law. The 2nd or any other wife of a husband would the 1st wife's wife-in-law. The only difference is that wife-in-law is not a term established through blood relations as the other in-law terms are. but it is established by marriage to the same husband (that's different than saying the two wives are married to each other). That is to say that both wives are the relatives or part of the family of the husband through marriage, so a 1st wife would connect the term "in-law" to whatever relation another woman is to the husband, and if that other woman is the 2nd wife (wife being the keyword) then the 1st wife would connect "in-law" with the word wife giving you, "wife-in-law."

Link: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1339
 
I personally like BFF (Best Friend Forever) because to me it is a goal to always be trying to reach. Wife-in-law sounds negative to me. Because we make all sorts of in-law jokes and no one ever admits to liking their in-laws.

I heard a family that called Mother-in Law a mother-in-love. So if we have to call it something, why not a sister-in-love or sil.

Just a thought

SweetLissa
 
However, hubby seems to think this might be suggestive of lesbianism. I like BFF. T like Hubby's other wife. I don't care what you call me as long as I don't miss anything.

SweetLissa
 
Group marriage: a form of marriage that involves multiple males and multiple females (3 or more males or females or any combination of the genders) all marrying each other and everyone would be under one marriage.

Here's how dictionary.com defines it:
Group marriage: (among primitive peoples) a form of marriage in which a group of males is united with a group of females to form a single conjugal unit.

Link: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/group+marriage

Also on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_marriage

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Comparing group marriage to polygamy and to polygyny...

Polygamy could be a "group marriage" if it is NOT practiced in the form of "plural" (or more than one) marriage. For example, a husband and 2 wives would all be married to each other under one marriage, rather than the husband having 2 separate marriages, one marriage for each wife.

Polygyny would not fit group marriage because only the husband has multiple spouses (wives) but the wives are not married to each other and only have one spouse, the husband. In a "group marriage", everyone in the group, the husbands and wives, would technically have multiple spouses since everyone in the group is married to each other.

Biblical polygamy only involves polygyny and the polygyny would be in the form of plural or multiple marriages, so of course group marriage is not a biblical form of marriage.
 
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