Bride kidnapping in the context of "Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld"

Elopement is a marriage which is conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, sometimes involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting married without parental approval. An elopement is contrasted with an abduction (e.g., a bride kidnapping), in which either the bride or groom has not consented, or a shotgun wedding in which the parents of one (prototypically the bride's) coerce both into marriage.

Controversially, in modern times, elopement is sometimes applied to any small, inexpensive wedding, even when it is performed with parental foreknowledge.

The rape of the Sabine women (Latin: Sabinae raptae, Classical pronunciation: [saˈbiːnae̯ ˈraptae̯]; lit. 'the kidnapped Sabine women'), also known as the abduction of the Sabine women or the kidnapping of the Sabine women, was an incident in the legendary history of Rome in which the men of Rome committed bride kidnappings or mass abduction for the purpose of marriage, of women from other cities in the region. It has been a frequent subject of painters and sculptors, particularly since the Renaissance.

The word "rape" (cognate with rapto in Portuguese, rapto in Spanish, ratto, in Italian, meaning "bride kidnap") is the conventional translation of the Latin word raptio used in the ancient accounts of the incident. The Latin word means "taking", "abduction" or "kidnapping", but when used with women as its object, sexual assault is usually implied.

Raptio (in archaic or literary English rendered as rape) is a Latin term for, among several other meanings for senses of "taking", the large-scale abduction of women: kidnapping for marriage, concubinage or sexual slavery. The equivalent German term is Frauenraub (literally woman robbery).

Bride kidnapping is distinguished from raptio in that the former is the abduction of one woman by one man (and his friends and relatives), whereas the latter is the abduction of many women by groups of men, possibly in a time of war.