Paramour

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Paramour

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Jul 12, 2021 7:40 pm

• paramour •


Pronunciation: pæ-rê-muwr • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: An illicit lover, mistress or fancy man, inamorata or lothario.

Notes: Today's Good Word is a beautiful, pleasant surrogate for all those embarrassing synonyms in Meaning above. It stands alone in the English lexicon, a lexical orphan.

In Play: Here is a word you may use in polite company: "Commoners have mistresses; kings have paramours". It often comes in handy around the office, too: "The office staff could only keep up with their boss by asking his driver which of his paramours' apartments he had parked the car outside of that day."

Word History: Paramour was created from the French phrase par amour, comprising par "by, through, via" + amour "love". Par descended from Latin per "through, across", which Latin inherited from PIE per "forward, through, before, near", whence also English for, forth and fore, and German für "for" and vor "before". This word underwent metathesis to become pro "before" and the prefix pre- "before, earlier". Amour goes back to Latin amor "love", the noun from amare "to love", still alive in Italian amare, and Portuguese and Spanish amar. The source of this word is still debated. Most probably it is the result of a PIE root ama- "love, someone loved", visible in Albanian amë "Aunt", Icelandic amma "grandmother", Latin amicus "friend". It is the metathesized result of the first recognizable sound a many babies make, ma, which underlies the PIE word for "mother", mater-. We see this word in all the Indo-European languages' word for mother, such as Latin mater, Greek meter and English mother. (Today's is yet another delightful Good Word from Albert Skiles, wordmaster among our happy band of contributors.)
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Philip Hudson
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Re: Paramour

Postby Philip Hudson » Thu Jul 15, 2021 9:26 pm

As one having limited knowledge of the subject, I shall not comment. :lol:
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David Myer
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Re: Paramour

Postby David Myer » Mon Jul 19, 2021 6:14 am

There's a challenge, Philip! Within what you say, lies an implication that anyone who comments must have knowledge. Perhaps that's why the thread appears to have dried up.

Of course, I am unable to comment.

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Slava
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Re: Paramour

Postby Slava » Mon Jul 19, 2021 6:24 am

I have a question about this one; is an inamorato or inamorata by definition illicit? Don't they mean something along the lines of 'one who is loved'?
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Re: Paramour

Postby David Myer » Mon Jul 19, 2021 6:34 am

Good question Slava. And in the same way, is a paramour necessarily illicit? There is nothing illegal (except perhaps in some religions) in having a lover with whom you are not married, is there? It is not illegal in the sense of state or national law to have pre-marital sex, is it? It certainly isn't illegal in Australia.

And if your wife is bored with you, she might encourage you to have a paramour, rather than keep pestering her.

Of course all implied genders here are interchangeable.

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Slava
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Re: Paramour

Postby Slava » Mon Jul 19, 2021 6:43 am

Well, in current usage, paramour is only for an illicit lover, but get this:
Originally a term for Christ (by women) or the Virgin Mary (by men), it came to mean "darling, sweetheart" (mid-14c.) and "wife, husband,"....(https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=paramour)

Quite the trip from Christ to illicitness.
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Re: Paramour

Postby David Myer » Mon Jul 19, 2021 6:50 am

Remarkable, Slava.

I must say that I always translated para as a prefix to mean alongside or beside. So paramedics work alongside medics. Parallel bars are alongside each other. A paramour on that basis would be a lover on the side. Surely not illegal or even illicit if your 'main' lover approves?
Last edited by David Myer on Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Slava
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Re: Paramour

Postby Slava » Mon Jul 19, 2021 7:07 am

I guess illegality or illicitness would depend on the point of view of the religion, the country, and the 'other half'. Since infidelity is considered cause for divorce, a paramour would be illicit in most cases.

Perhaps, if it's okay with the spouse, such a lover would be called something else. A lot also would depend on the seriousness of the relationship, too.
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Re: Paramour

Postby tkowal » Tue Jul 20, 2021 10:52 am

I have a question about this one; is an inamorato or inamorata by definition illicit? Don't they mean something along the lines of 'one who is loved'?
It seems to me that inamorato means in Italian one who is in love. I don't think there is anything illicit about it :wink: .

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Re: Paramour

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Jul 20, 2021 11:11 pm

A paramour on that basis would be a lover on the side.,,
or, as the British put it, "a bit on the side".
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