paramour
- an illicit lover, especially of a married person.
- any lover.
Origin of paramour
Related Words for paramour
beau, mistress, sweetheart, concubine, admirer, courtesan, steady, escort, girlfriend, inamorata, boyfriend, doxy, inamoratoExamples from the Web for paramour
Contemporary Examples of paramour
Sadly, he had to leave his paramour behind in the Sunshine State.
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford spent last weekend in Florida with Maria Belen Chapur, his Argentinian paramour.
Historical Examples of paramour
The king himself now asserts it was because he had tried to seduce his paramour.
CyropaediaXenophon
It is so easy to punish the woman, and yet it is not proved that she was worse than her paramour.
Broken BreadThomas Champness
How can you be the paramour type if you refuse to fall in love foolishly?
The PerfectionistsArnold Castle
I deduced he was her paramour, husband or close relative, perhaps a brother.
Valley of the CroenLee Tarbell
For some months she enjoyed with her paramour all for which she had sighed in her home.
Paul Clifford, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
paramour
- mainly derogatory a lover, esp an adulterous woman
- an archaic word for beloved (def. 2)
Word Origin for paramour
Word Origin and History for paramour
c.1300, noun use of adverbial phrase par amour (c.1300) "passionately, with strong love or desire," from Anglo-French and Old French par amour, from accusative of amor "love," from amare "to love" (see Amy). Originally a term for Christ (by women) or the Virgin Mary (by men), it came to mean "darling, sweetheart" (mid-14c.) and "mistress, concubine, clandestine lover" (late 14c.).