New word: Metaphornication

Here’s the context. On Thursday evening I was in Denver. Over dinner I was discussing with friends Pat Robertson’s claim that one can divorce a spouse with Alzheimer and begin dating others without violating the “in sickness and in health” requirement, because, according to Robertson, the spouse suffering from Alzheimer  is “a kind of death.” As the conversation continued, one of the other dinner guests pointed out that Martin Luther had said that divorce for reason of adultery is not inconsistent with marriage being indissoluble because the adultery effectively “kills” the marriage in the same way that the death of a spouse ends the marriage and allows for the surviving spouse to remarry. I then called Luther’s conceptual move, “metaphornication.” Feel free to use it, but just give me credit. If not, I will accuse you of “cleptologia.”