paramour

par·a·mour

(păr′ə-mo͝or′)

A lover, especially a lover of a person who is married to someone else.

[Middle English, from par amour, by way of love, passionately, from Anglo-Norman : par, by (from Latin per; see per in Indo-European roots) + amour, love (from Latin amor, from amāre, to love).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

paramour

(ˈpærəˌmʊə)

1. chiefly derogatory a lover, esp an adulterous woman

2. an archaic word for beloved²

[C13: from Old French, literally: through love]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

par•a•mour

(ˈpær əˌmʊər)

n.

1. an illicit lover.

2. any lover.

[1250–1300; Middle English, from the phrase par amour by or through love < Old French]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	paramour - a woman's lover fancy man lover - a significant other to whom you are not related by marriage
	2.	paramour - a woman who cohabits with an important man concubine, courtesan, doxy kept woman, mistress, fancy woman - an adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man odalisque - a woman slave in a harem

paramour

noun (Old-fashioned) lover, mistress, beau, concubine, courtesan, kept woman, fancy man (slang), fancy woman (slang), inamorata, fancy bit (slang), inamorato the president's alleged paramour

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

paramour

noun

A person's regular sexual partner:

lover.

Translations

paramour

[ˈpærəmʊəʳ] N (liter) → amante mf, querido/a m/f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

paramour

n (old) → Liebhaber m, → Buhle mf (old); (hum) (= man) → Hausfreund m (hum); (= woman) → Geliebte f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in classic literature ?

Spirits in the shapes of ALEXANDER THE GREAT, of his Paramour, of DARIUS, and of HELEN.

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"Thou hast kept the secret of thy paramour. Keep, likewise, mine!

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Yes, in these halls, stained with the noble and pure blood of my father and my brethren in these very halls, to have lived the paramour of their murderer, the slave at once and the partaker of his pleasures, was to render every breath which I drew of vital air, a crime and a curse.''

For had I but dreamed of the daughter of Torquil living in foul communion with the murderer of her father, the sword of a true Saxon had found thee out even in the arms of thy paramour!''

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"I was now reduced to a much higher degree of distress than before: the necessaries of life began to be numbered among my wants; and what made my case still the more grievous was, that my paramour, of whom I was now grown immoderately fond, shared the same distresses with myself.

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Just put your head in at English cottage doors; get a glimpse of Famine crouched torpid on black hearthstones; of Disease lying bare on beds without coverlets, of Infamy wantoning viciously with Ignorance, though indeed Luxury is her favourite paramour, and princely halls are dearer to her than thatched hovels "

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I could now see the reason of Arthur's strange reception of me in the shrubbery; the burst of kindness was for his paramour, the start of horror for his wife.

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The long silence was full of formless historical memories of murdered husbands and poisonous paramours.

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Panero asked to have illicit relations with her as payment for his professional services, promising her that he would rent a house where she can stay as his paramour to be visited once a day.

Baseless but damaging complaint

A man shot dead his wife and her alleged paramour in the name of honor on Wednesday at Bateera in KolaiPalasKohistan.

Man kills wife, her alleged paramour

KOHISTAN -- A man shot dead his wife and her alleged paramour in the name of honour on Wednesday at Bateera in Kolai Palas Kohistan.

Man kills wife, her alleged paramour

She planned murder of her husband with the connivance of her paramour after he became acquainted with their affair.