paramour

Pluralparamours

1. 1
   secret lovernounliterarycountable

   A lover in an illicit relationship, who may be either a man or a woman.

   The senator was photographed leaving a hotel late at night with his paramour.

   They should be chaste, not lustful, nor taking paramours:

   1934, Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'an: Text

   Similarmistress, concubine

   Note

   An old-fashioned, faintly literary word that has not been retired: Robbie Collin's 2016 review of Grimsby still introduces a character's "paramour Dawn." In older prose it keeps company with seducers and elopements, as in Macaulay's History of England (1848). Where mistress names only a woman, paramour fits a lover of either sex, so it suits a writer who wants the scandal without fixing the gender. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Robbie Collin's 2016 review of Grimsby uses the phrase "paramour Dawn". en.wiktionary.org
   • Macaulay's History of England uses paramour in a passage about seduction and elopement. en.wikisource.org
2. 2
   adverbobsolete

   In a passionate way that springs from sexual desire, used chiefly of loving someone.

   Similarpassionately

   Note

   The phrase behind the whole word shows most plainly here: Old French par amor, "for love's sake," was itself adverbial, and this sense stays closest to it. It takes no comparative and has dropped out of use, leaving the noun for an illicit lover as the form readers meet. Even that noun's modern pronunciation was apparently refitted to the French in Early Modern English. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The word derives from an Old French phrase meaning 'for love's sake' or 'by or through love'. en.wiktionary.org
   • The underlying phrase was adverbial, matching the historical English use with verbs of loving. gutenberg.org
   • The English adverb is uncomparable and obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
   • The modern pronunciation apparently reflects an Early Modern English readaptation of French. en.wiktionary.org
3. 3
   divine lovernounobsolete

   Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary as a beloved, addressed in devotion by a person of the opposite sex: Christ by a woman, Mary by a man.

   Note

   Prayer once borrowed this word as readily as romance did. It comes from Old French par amor, "for love's sake," and nothing in that phrase is illicit, so a devout speaker could name a holy figure as a beloved. The use is obsolete now. A reader who meets it in older devotional writing should not hear the illicit lover in it, since the scandalous meaning is the one that survived. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The word historically designated Christ or the Virgin Mary as a beloved in devotional usage. fr.wiktionary.org
   • The word derives from Old French par amor, meaning 'for love's sake'. en.wiktionary.org
   • The underlying phrase did not inherently imply an illicit relationship. gutenberg.org
   • A holy figure could be called a beloved without implying an illicit lover. fr.wiktionary.org

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