Alimony
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Alimony. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an allowance granted a wife out of her husband's income on account of a separation or divorce. When it appears just, the court has power to grant alimony, pending a suit for separation. At the conclusion of a suit favorable to the wife, the court may grant permanent alimony. There is no law fixing the amount of alimony; but the court is supposed to take the husband's ability to pay, and the family scale of expenditure, into account. In case of temporary alimony, a fifth of the husband's income is considered a liberal allowance, and is granted, lest otherwise the wife may have no means of bringing a just action at law. A study of decisions shows that permanent alimony is fixed frequently at from a third to a half of the husband's income, being highest where the wife assumes the maintenance of children. In case of wealth the alimony may be large, yet not reach so large a share of the defendant's income. In case of inability to pay, or want of merit on the part of the plaintiff wife, the court may at its discretion grant nominal, or even no, alimony. See Divorce
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in law, the allowance, awarded out of her husband's estate, to which a wife is entitled on separation or divorce. Jurisdiction in this matter in England is conferred upon a court of divorce. In the United States it is vested in the courts of equity. Alimony may be granted by the court during litigation, or at the conclusion of the suit, when it is called permanent. The former enables the wife to pursue the litigation, whether proceedings have been brought by or against her. The amount granted lies within the discretion of the court. Permanent alimony is a periodical allowance, awarded to the wife if the termination of the suit is favorable to her. By a writ of ne exeat (let him not depart), the court can prevent the husband from leaving the State without leaving sufficient security for payment. If the husband should remove to another State the wife can enforce her claim in the Federal courts.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both entries assume alimony flows in one direction only "an allowance granted a wife out of her husband's income," as Aiton's put it in 1910. That assumption was struck down in 1979, when the U.S. Supreme Court held in Orr v. Orr that statutes imposing alimony on husbands alone violated the Equal Protection Clause; support is now payable by either spouse. The spread of no-fault divorce after California's 1969 reform also removed much of the moral calculus these entries take for granted, under which a wife of "want of merit" might get nominal or no alimony. Permanent periodical support has been curtailed too: Massachusetts overhauled its law in 2011 and Florida abolished permanent alimony in 2023, in favor of time-limited awards, and since 2019 U.S. federal tax law no longer lets the payer deduct it.
Written for this edition, 2026.