German words in old records · card C

copuliert

Copuliert (also kopuliert, copulirt) is an old German church word for "married": the couple were joined in marriage on the date given.

The word comes from Latin copulare, to join, and in old church books it simply means wed. Marriage registers were often headed Copulationen or Kopulierte, the couples married that year. Duden marks this sense of kopulieren as outdated legal language for trauen, to marry.

Modern German uses kopulieren mostly in a biological sense, which can surprise a reader using a modern dictionary. In a church book there is no doubt: it is a wedding.

As seen in a recordMarriage register of a German Lutheran parish, 1820s
Copulirt den 18. Nov. 1823: Johann Valentin Hornickel, led., und Anna Elisabetha Scheerer
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How to cite this page

Daily Ancestor. "copuliert." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/german/copuliert. Last checked 2026-10-28.

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