ăd-ulter, ĕri, m., and ădultĕra, ae, f. [alter, acc. to Fest.: adulter et adultera dicuntur, quia et ille ad alteram et haec ad alterum se conferunt, p. 22 Müll.], orig. one who approaches another (from unlawful or criminal love), an adulterer or adulteress (as an adj. also, but only in the poets).
I Prop.: quis ganeo, quis nepos, quis adulter, quae mulier infamis, etc., Cic. Cat. 2, 4: sororis adulter Clodius, id. Sest. 39; so id. Fin. 2, 9; Ov. H. 20, 8; Tac. A. 3, 24; Vulg. Deut. 22, 22: adultera, Hor. C. 3, 3, 25; Ov. M. 10, 347; Quint. 5, 10, 104; Suet. Calig. 24; Vulg. Deut. 22, 22; and with mulier: via mulieris adulterae, ib. Prov. 30, 20; ib. Ezech. 16, 32.—Also of animals: adulter, Grat. Cyneg. 164; Claud. Cons. Mall. Theod. 304: adultera, Plin. 8, 16, 17, § 43.—Poet. in gen. of unlawful love, without the access. idea of adultery, a paramour : Danaën munierant satis nocturnis ab adulteris, Hor. C. 3, 16, 1 sq.; so id. ib. 1, 36, 19; Ov. Ib. 338.—
II Adulter solidorum, i. e. monetae, a counterfeiter or adulterator of coin , Const. 5, Cod. Th.—
III The offspring of unlawful love: nothus, a bastard (eccl.): adulteri et non filii estis, Vulg. Heb. 12, 8.