contubernal adjective2 •(rare) Living in close proximity (as though sharing a tent); intimate, familiar.Tributes between poets, chess champions, couturiers—and novelists—are always hopefully contubernal. All such donors really yearn for others to see that the honored one lives in a tent they share. — 1970 •(historical) Of a relationship between a male and female slave: sexual in nature and somewhat similar to marriage, but not formalized due to the parties being legally unable to marry.[…]the slave system depended on these so-called contubernial relationships to provide a steady supply of new slaves. — 2003
