tna'im

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Hebrew תְּנָאִים, plural of תְּנַאי (“condition, term”).

Noun

tna'im pl (plural only)

1. (Judaism) An informal document containing the terms and expectations for a betrothed couple.
   • 2000 February 1, Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Society at the End of the Middle Ages, Syracuse University Press, →ISBN, page 115:

     The tna'im contained guarantees of sufficient substance that the couple's future might now be seen as entirely settled.

   • 2000, Dov Levin, The Litvaks: A Short History of the Jews in Lithuania, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page 59:

     Small-town rabbis, therefore, sometimes lived in conditions of poverty, despite their right to supplement their income with payments for drawing up tnaim (for engaged couples) and marriage contracts...

   • 2017, Velvel Pasternak, Behind the Music, Stories, Anecdotes, Articles and Reflections, page 197:

     After the tna'im (nuptial agreement) is witnessed, the mothers of the bride and groom hold and break a plate, and the bridegroom shatters a glass at the end of the wedding ceremony.

Alternative forms

• tanaim, tenaim, tnaim, tnoyim