hypogamy

Etymology

From hypo- + -gamy.

hypogamy means the seeking of a spouse of lower socioeconomic status or caste than oneself. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.

Why “hypogamy” is a great word

HYPOGAMY — [Noun] The practice of marrying a spouse of lower socioeconomic status, caste, or social group than oneself. From the Greek hypo- ("under, below") + -gamy ("marriage"). First attested in English in 1946. Unlike hypergamy, which charts a sanctioned ascent, or endogamy, which insists on insular stasis, hypogamy is a deliberate, gravitational descent. It is the prince forsaking his title for a scribe's daughter, the heiress disappearing into a tenement with a union organizer, the scion bringing home a partner whose world is measured in shifts and hourly wages—a quiet, personal revolution that briefly makes a nonsense of the world's most cherished hierarchies, where love is measured by what one agrees to lose.

noun

The seeking of a spouse of lower socioeconomic status or caste than oneself.“The reverse (hypogamy) is rare because with marriage a woman and her future offspring take on the social position of the husband, and so an upper‐class woman marrying a lower‐class man reduces her position as well as that of her children.”