paramour

/ˈpæɹəmʊə/

Etymology

The 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)). The noun is from Middle English paramour, paramoure, paramur, per

paramour means of loving, etc.: out of or through romantic feeling or sexual desire; passionately. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 75 out of 100.

Why this word is great

PARAMOUR — [Noun] A lover, especially one with whom a person is having a secret or adulterous affair. From the Middle English adverbial phrase par amour ("passionately, through love"), borrowed from Old French par amour, from par ("by, through") from Latin per ("through") + amour ("love") from Latin amor ("love"). Unlike "spouse"—a partner bound by public covenant—or "sweetheart"—an open, often guileless beloved—a paramour exists in the conditional tense, defined by its necessary concealment. It is the scent of a stranger's perfume on a collar, the second set of initials etched inside a locked watch case, the suspended hush of a rented room in the afternoon light—an architecture of intimacy built entirely outside the walls of sanctioned life, where the very secrecy that defines it also ensures its impermanence.

adv

Of loving, etc.: out of or through romantic feeling or sexual desire; passionately.“[…] Cleopatra, doughter of Ptolomee late kinge of Egypt (whome Ceſar [Julius Caesar] in his lyfe helde for his Concubine) the ſame lady Antoni [Mark Antony] (with whome Octauiane [later Augustus] deuided the empire) loued alſo peramours, abandonynge his wyfe, whiche was ſuſter to Octauian.”
Used chiefly when addressing someone: out of or through devotion or kindness; as a favour or kindness.“[T]he Lord Chiefe Iuſtice ſtood vp, and forbad the proceedings, alotting Paramour the Lands vvith the ſatiſfying of the plaintifes, and thereupon commanded Nailor to giue Thorn againe his Gauntlet, vvhich he vnvvillingly did; and ſo the Combate being ended, vve may haue leaue to proceed.”

noun

A person who is the object of one's love, especially in an affair or romance; a lover; also, a sexual partner.“No ſolace could her Paramour intreat / Her once to ſhovv, ne court, nor dalliaunce, / But vvith bent lovvring brovves, as ſhe vvould threat, / She ſcould, and frovvned vvith frovvard countenaunce, / Vnvvorthy of faire Ladies comely gouernaunce.”
A person (especially someone who is not one's spouse) with whom one has an illicit or secret affair; also (Scotland, US, law), one with whom a married person has an adulterous affair.“to run away with a paramour”
A woman who is the object of a knight's love, and who he fights for.“It is the leaſt of his famous aduentures, that hee vndertaketh to be Greenes [Robert Greene's?] aduocate: […] He may declare his deere affection to his Paramour; or his pure honeſtye to the vvorld; […]”
God as the object of a person's devotion or love.“Clad you with yͤ ſilke of ſinceritie, with yͤ ſaten [satin] of ſanctitie, with the purple of probitie. Thus prune and pricke vp your ſelues, and God himſelfe ſhall be your paramour, ⁊c.”

verb

To have an illicit or secret affair with a person, especially someone who is not one's spouse.“[W]ine loued I deeply, dice deerely, and in vvoman out paromord the Turke, […]”