Parapherna
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A woman's property which was not made a part of her marriage dower, but remained her own. Ancient-Rome, historical, plural, plural-only
Synonyms
All synonymsEtymology
From Late Latin parapherna, from Ancient Greek παράφερνα (parápherna, “things additional to a dowry”), from παρα- (para-, “beside”) + φερνή (phernḗ, “dowry”). In the propertied classes, a dowry was placed under the control of the husband, while the 'paraphernalia' which she brought with her remained the wife’s property.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.