Meaning & use
Coemption
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The act of buying up the entire available supply of a commodity, or, in Roman law, a form of marriage effected by a mutual, symbolic purchase between spouses.
See it in a sentence
The grain merchant's coemption of the region's wheat supply drove prices sharply upward.
Historians describe coemption as one of three traditional ways a Roman marriage could be legally formed.
A note on using this word
The word comes from Latin coemptio, from co- ('together') and emere ('to buy'); it survives mainly in economic history and legal texts rather than everyday speech.
Words with a similar meaning
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Another way to use it
2. noun
In ancient Roman law, a form of marriage in which the bride was formally 'bought' by the groom in a symbolic ceremony.
Coemption was one of the three traditional methods of contracting marriage under Roman law.
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