hyperandry

Noun

hyperandry (usually uncountable, plural hyperandries)

1. (usually) Act or practice of a man seeking a spouse of higher socioeconomic status or caste status than himself.
   • Hypergamy refers to the tendency of either sex to mate with individuals of superior status. When women date or marry up, it is called hypergyny. When men do so, it is called hyperandry.1998, John Marshall Townsend, chapter 6, in What Women Want–What Men Want: Why the Sexes Still See Love and Commitment So Differently, Oxford University Press, page 133
   • The more common variant of hypergamous unions is hypergyny, in which a woman realizes social, economic, and political gains by marrying a man whose status is higher than that ascribed to her family or group of origin. In the opposite pattern, known as hyperandry, a man of low status takes a bride...2001, Rachel A. Bonney, J. Anthony Paredes, chapter 5, in Anthropologist and Indians in the new South, University of Alabama Press, page 186