coniugi

Coniugi is the Italian plural noun for the spouses in a marriage or civil union. The singular form is coniuge, used to refer to an individual spouse. The term is commonly employed in legal, administrative, and social contexts to denote the pair of partners in a marital relationship.

Originating from Latin, the word coniugi derives from coniunx and has long been used in Italian to describe the two people who form a married or legally recognized couple. In modern usage, coniugi can refer to both male and female partners and is typically gender-neutral in its plural form.

In law and civil life, coniugi appears in expressions such as diritti e doveri dei coniugi (the rights and duties of the spouses) or regime of the beni dei coniugi (property regime of the spouses). It is also common in demographic and sociological contexts, for example in statistics about families composed of two coniugi or households headed by coniugi.

Notes and variations: the term is used for heterosexual marriages and, in contexts where same-sex unions are legally recognized, it can be applied to both partners in a marriage or civil union depending on the jurisdiction and the wording of the law. The phrase i coniugi is widely understood to mean the couple as a unit, rather than focusing on a single individual.

Examples: I coniugi Rossi hanno firmato l’atto; La casa è di proprietà dei coniugi. In all cases, the term emphasizes the partnership and joint status of the two individuals within the relationship.