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paramour

[par-uh-moo r]
See more synonyms for paramour on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an illicit lover, especially of a married person.
  2. any lover.
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Origin of paramour

1250–1300; Middle English, from the phrase par amour by or through love < Old French
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for paramour

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • The king himself now asserts it was because he had tried to seduce his paramour.

    Cyropaedia

    Xenophon

  • It is so easy to punish the woman, and yet it is not proved that she was worse than her paramour.

    Broken Bread

    Thomas Champness

  • How can you be the paramour type if you refuse to fall in love foolishly?

    The Perfectionists

    Arnold Castle

  • I deduced he was her paramour, husband or close relative, perhaps a brother.

  • For some months she enjoyed with her paramour all for which she had sighed in her home.

    Paul Clifford, Complete

    Edward Bulwer-Lytton

British Dictionary definitions for paramour

paramour

noun
  1. mainly derogatory a lover, esp an adulterous woman
  2. an archaic word for beloved (def. 2)
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Word Origin

C13: from Old French, literally: through love
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for paramour

n.

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.).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper