Adultery
Adultery is a word used in religious texts and in laws. It applies to a married couple, and in the past meant that the man of the couple left his wife for another woman, usually to have sexual intercourse with that woman that is not his wife. Adultery usually comes with a heavy punishment (death by stoning). In most countries adultery is no longer a crime, but most people still see it as a bad thing. If a person who is married takes part in adultery, that person's husband or wife would usually have the right to be able to go to court to divorce that person.
Adultery is the voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and another person who is not that person's spouse.
The word adultery originates not from “adult”, as is commonly thought in English-speaking countries, but from the Late Latin word for “to alter, corrupt”: “adulterare”. “Adulterare” in turn is formed by the combination of “ad” (towards), and “alter” (other), together with the infinitive form “are” (making it a verb). Thus the meaning is literally “to make other”. In contrast, the word “adult” (meaning a person of mature years) comes from another Latin root, “adolescere”, meaning to grow up or mature: a combination of “ad” (towards), “alere” (to nourish, to grow), and the inchoative infix “sc”(meaning to enter into a state of).
