paramour
Of loving, etc.: out of or through romantic feeling or sexual desireOf loving, etc.: out of or through romantic feeling or sexual desire; passionately.
Recorded US: Speaker: Naomi Persephone Amethyst Recorder: NaomiAmethyst, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Meaning
2 senses(not comparable, obsolete)Of loving, etc.: out of or through romantic feeling or sexual desire; passionately.
(not comparable, obsolete)Used chiefly when addressing someone: out of or through devotion or kindness; as a favour or kindness.
Examples
4 sentencesTom has a lot of paramours.
She spent the weekend with her paramour.
ruОна провела выходные с любовником. — marafon · CC BY 2.0 FR
Tom's paramour Mary studies the history of claims of telepathy.
Tom is Mary's paramour.
Origin
The adverb is derived from Middle English par amour, paramore, paramours (“with sexual desThe adverb is derived from Middle English par amour, paramore, paramours (“with sexual desire or love, passionately; in a courteous or friendly manner”), from Anglo-Norman par amur (“in a friendly or willing manner”) and Old French par amur, par amour, paramours (“by or through love”) (modern French par amour), from par (“by; through; etc.”) (from Latin per (“by means of, through”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through; etc.”)) + amor, amur (“love”, noun) (from Latin amōrem, the accusative singular of amor (“desire, lust; affection, love”), from amō (“to love”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃emh₃- (“to grasp, seize; to take hold; to touch; etc.”)) + -or (suffix forming abstract nouns)).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.