Brown v. Brown

Rodney, J.,

delivering the opinion of the Court:

The term “alimony” is a word with a dual meaning. in its broadest sense it means the support or maintenance which a Court decrees in favor of a spouse (usually the wife) as enforcing the right to marital support which such party may have had. In a more strict and limited sense it indicates such support or maintenance as is considered in connection with, divorce proceedings. The confusion in the meaning of the term is not hard to trace. At Common Law no English law Court (as distinguished from Ecclesiastical *162Court) had any jurisdiction of divorce.…