線內：已婚的身分
這一支就是那條線本身，也就是這個字自己的意思。
noun · C1
The state of being married. It is a formal, old-sounding word for marriage, and most of the time you will meet it in older writing, in legal or religious language, and in a few fixed phrases.
婚姻（已婚狀態）
核心畫面
Think of a line drawn in a record book rather than of two people in love. Wedlock is the married state seen from outside, the way a law or a register sees it: you are either inside that line or outside it. That is why the word feels cool and official, and why the expression built on it, born out of wedlock, is simply about which side of the line someone stood on at a particular moment.
這個字可以想成戶籍簿上畫的一條線，而不是兩個人之間的感情。wedlock 是從外面看的「已婚狀態」，就像法律或登記簿…更多收起
這個字可以想成戶籍簿上畫的一條線，而不是兩個人之間的感情。wedlock 是從外面看的「已婚狀態」，就像法律或登記簿在看的那樣：你不是在這條線之內，就是在線外。所以這個字聽起來冷冷的、公事公辦，而建立在它上面的 born out of wedlock，講的也只是某個時間點上，人站在線的哪一邊。From the word’s history
From Old English wedlac, later Middle English wedlok, formed from wed, to pledge or marry, plus the old noun ending -lock. The ending is not the lock you open; it is an Old English suffix used to make nouns. The word therefore names the standing that follows a pledge, which is exactly the line in the register.
來自古英文 wedlāc，中古英文寫作 wedlok，由 wed（立誓、成婚）加上古英文的名詞字尾 -lock 組成。這個 -lock 跟今天的「鎖」不是同一件事，它是古英文用來造名詞的字尾。所以這個字指的是「立下婚約之後的那個身分」，正好就是登記簿上那條線。
Wiktionary entry for wedlock, supplied in this evidence packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:842466970): from Old English wedlac, by surface analysis wed + -lock.
Two branches
線外：整組固定說法
同一條線，只是站在外面那一邊；意思屬於整個說法，不屬於 wedlock 這個字。
noun · C1
If a child is born out of wedlock, the child's parents were not married to each other at the time of the birth. The words describe the parents' legal position at that moment and nothing else.
非婚生（父母當時未婚）