paramour

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English paramour,^[2][3] first recorded as the adverbial phrase par amur (“passionately, with strong love or desire”),^[3][4][5] borrowed from Old French par amour (“by or through love”),^{[5][4][6][7][8][9][2]} also par amur and par amor, recorded from about 1100.^[5] Anglo-Norman par amur meant willingly or amicably.^[5] The French phrase is formed from par (“by, through”), from Latin per, and amour (“love”), from amor.^[6][3][10] That noun is from amō (“to love”).^[4] The phrase was written as one word from early on and came to be treated in English as a noun, perhaps partly through a mistaken analysis of the phrase love paramours.^[5][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adverbial phrase, passionately or by way of love: before 1300, in Floris and Blauncheflur, in to love par amour.^[5][3] The noun is first recorded before 1325 by Barnhart, in the Cursor Mundi,^[3] and before 1375 by the OED, in William of Palerne.^[5] Etymonline dates it to the early 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The noun began in devotion: men used it of the Virgin Mary and women of Christ.^[4][11][5] It widened to a general term for a darling or sweetheart,^[3][4] and the love itself could be called paramour until 1586.^[5] The suggestion of clandestine love is already in Chaucer, in the Wife of Bath's Tale.^[11][5] From the 17th century this bad sense was the only one, except in poetry.^[4] From before 1450 the word also named the lady for whom a knight did battle, a use now historical.^[5][7] Johnson (1755) gave "a lover or wooer" and "a mistress", quoting Spenser, Milton and Shakespeare, and called it "obsolete in both senses, though not inelegant or unmusical".^[12] It survived all the same, and the OED notes a legal use in Scots and American law for the person with whom a married person has an illicit relationship.^[5] A verb paramour, to love, rests on one passage in Merlin from before 1500, which the OED's first edition labelled spurious, supposing that a scribe had dropped loueth.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1300 – the adverbial phrase, in to love par amour, to love passionately (obsolete by 1652).^[5][3]
• before 1325 – noun, a devotional term for Christ or the Virgin Mary (obsolete by 1581).^[3][5]
• c. 1330 – adverbial, out of love or kindness; if you please (obsolete by 1611).^[5]
• before 1375 – a lover or sweetheart; also love, a love affair (obsolete by 1586).^[5][3]
• c. 1395 – an illicit or clandestine lover, in Chaucer.^[5] Barnhart dates this sense to about 1390.^[3]
• before 1450 – the lady for whom a knight does battle.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lover, especially an illicit or clandestine one who takes the place of a husband or wife; a mistress: The duke installed his paramour in a villa by the lake.^{[2][13][5][7]}
2. (archaic) A beloved person; a sweetheart.^[13][5][7]
3. (historical) The lady for whom a knight did battle; an object of chivalrous devotion.^[5][7]
4. (obsolete, 1375–1586) Love, especially sexual love; a love affair.^[5][7]
5. (obsolete, 1400–1581) As a devotional term, the Virgin Mary or Christ.^[5][7]

Adverb

1. (archaic) For or by way of sexual love, chiefly in love paramour.^[5][7]
2. (obsolete, 1330–1611) Out of love or kindness; as a favour.^[5][7]

Related words

• amour
• amorous
• amateur

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins