Woman with multiple husbands jailed, falsely accused of having two spouses

At least that's what the language of the charges would indicate, according to this article via ABC News: Military Bigamist's Mom: She's Mentally Ill

After all, bigamy is (according to dictionaries and according to its very roots) bi -- meaning two -- and gamy -- meaning marriage or union -- two marriages, or the condition of having two spouses.

In common usage, the term is applied to having a duplicate wife. Ergo, we might assume the woman has been jailed for forgetting to divorce one wife (heh) before marrying the next.

But the truth of the article comes a little later (emphasis mine):

a 27-year-old woman accused of marrying at least five military men at bases across the country

which would make her in no wise a bi-anything. She practices polyandry. She is polyandrous. She is a polyandrist, not a bigamist. Or, if you simply must use the -gamy, then at least get the number correct, people! Strive to wrap your lips and typing fingers around the plain old-fashioned terms, polygamy and polygamist.


Look, I know my own grammar is not always perfect, but I do know English as a language still has basic rules of gender and number, especially when it's built from the Greek and Latin. I'd appreciate it if some of those who were ostensibly making careers of communicating could get this one wee thing right.

Sheesh.