▪ I. paramour, advb. phr. and n.
(ˈpærəmʊə(r))
Forms: see below.
[ME. a. OF. adv. phr. par amur, amour, -s, by or through love. From an early date the phrase was written as one word, and came to be treated (in Eng.) as a n., both in sense of ‘love’ and ‘beloved, lover’. This may have come partly through a mistaken analysis of the phrase to love paramour, -s.]
A. adv. phr. Forms: 3–4 par amur, -s, 4 par amour, -s, per amour, -s; paramur, -s, 4–6 paramour, -s (5 paramoure, -es, -is, 5–6 peramour, -s, -owre, 6 -owris, 5 (7) -ore).
† 1. Through or by way of love; out of (your) love, for love's sake (cf. love n.1 7); sometimes in weakened sense, Of your kindness, as a favour, if you please. Obs.
Perh. sometimes orig. short for ‘for love of God’.
| 13.. Sir Beues (MS. A.) 118 ‘Felawe’, a saide, ‘par amur: Whar mai ich finde þemperur?’ 13.. Seuyn Sag. (W.) 1455 A! lat me in, sire, paramour! 13.. Coer de L. 453 Tel me the sothe, I yow prey, Off these joustes, peramours. 14.. Recovery of Throne by Edw. IV in Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 280 He hathe deservid thancke amonge other paramour. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xxiv. §143 The Lord Chiefe Iustice stood vp, and forbade the proceedings, alotting Paramour the Lands, with the satisfying of the Plaintifes. |
† 2. For or by way of sexual love. Obs. (or arch.)
| c 1386 Chaucer Sir Thopas 32 They moorne for hym paramour Whan hem were bet to slepe. 1825 Scott Betrothed xxvii, She is one I could have doated to death upon par amours. 1848 Lytton Harold vi. vi, Some infidel, to one of whose wives he sought to be gallant, par amours. |
† b. Phrase. to love par amour (amours): (Usually) To love by way of (sexual) love, to love (a person of the opposite sex), to love amorously or as a lover, to be in love with; sometimes, to have a clandestine or illicit amour with.
In some later instances paramours may have been taken as n., and object of the vb.: cf. B. 2.
| a 1300 Floriz & Bl. 486 Ho þat luueþ par amur And haþ þer-of ioye mai luue flures. a 1300 Cursor M. 52 For now is halden non in curs Bot qua þat luue can paramurs [later MSS. -ours, -ouris]. a 1310 in Wright Lyric P. xxxi. 91 Y lovede a clerk al par amours. 1375 Barbour Bruce xiii. 485 He his sister paramouris Lufit. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 297, I telle thee outrely ffor paramour I loued hire first er thow. c 1410 Sir Cleges 489 Sir Cleges..That I lovyd peramore. c 1430 Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 4553 He loueth paramoures som wight. 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas viii. xxvii. (1558) 19 Aboue al women loued her peramour. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour L iij, To loue peramours eche other. 1531 Elyot Gov. iii. xxii, The same lady [Cleopatra] Antoni..loued also peramours, abandonynge his wyfe. 1535 Coverdale Baruch vi. 8 Like as a wench y{supt} loueth peramours is trymly deckte. c 1560 A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) iii. 46 And swa but pane ȝe may lufe paramowris. Ibid. xxix. 6 For mony men ar evill to ken, Þat luvis paramour, W{supt} fenȝeit mynd, fals and vnkynd, Bringis ȝow to dishonour. [1652 Ashmole Theat. Chem. 200 Sche loveth him peramore and no other.] |
B. n. Forms: 3– paramour, 4–5 -amours (5–6 -is; 4, 6–7 -or, 4, 8 -ore, 5–6 -oure, per-).
† 1. Love; esp. sexual love, an amour. Obs.
| c 1350 Will. Palerne 1412 He..layked him at likyng wiþ þat faire burde Pleyes of paramours vn-parceyued longe time, So sliliche, þat no seg souched non ille. c 1386 Chaucer Cook's T. 8 He was as ful of love & paramour As is the hyve ful of hony sweete. ― Merch. T. 206 By cause of leueful procreacion Of children..And nat oonly for paramour or loue. c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. iii. (Fox & Cock) 110 In all this warld was thair na kyndar thing; In paramouris he wald do ws plesing. a 1586 Montgomerie Misc. Poems l. 27 Pigmaleon, that ane portratour Be painting craft, did sa decoir, Himself thairwith in paramour Fell suddanlie, and smert thairfoir. |
† b. In devotional use, Divine or celestial love: cf. 2 b. Obs.
| 13.. Salut. Our Lady 45 in Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. 135 Heil puyred princesse of paramour, Heil Blosme of Brere, Brihtest of ble. |
2. A person beloved by one of the opposite sex; a ‘love’, a lover, a sweetheart; also of animals (quots. 1735, 1801) and fig. arch. and poet.
| c 1350 Will. Palerne 1534 Mi perles paramours my pleye & my ioye, Spek to me spakli or i spille sone. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xvii. 107 A mayde for a mannes loue her moder for-sakeþ,..and gooþ forth with hure paramour. c 1489 Caxton Blanchardyn xxiii. 78 Ye knowe well my lady paramours, and that she is of your lynage. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (1856) II. 514 Ane fair ȝoung man, Hir peramouris quhilk in the tyme wes than. ? a 1550 Knight of Curtesy 45 in Ritson Metr. Rom. III. 195 His paramour she thought to be, Hym for to love wyth herte and minde, Nat in vyce but in chastyte. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. i. 9 The Willow, worne of forlorne Paramours. 1629 Milton Nativity 36 To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour. 1735 Somerville Chase iv. 58 Huntsman!..For ev'ry longing Dame select Some happy Paramour. 1801 Southey Thalaba iv. i, Pale reflection..Of glow-worm on the bank, Kindled to guide her winged paramour. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus lxi. 44 Lord of fair paramours, of youth's Fair affection uniter. |
† b. Formerly, in devotional language, applied (by men) to the Virgin, and (by women) to Jesus Christ; sometimes also to God. Obs.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 69 For-þi blisce [I] þat paramour..Hyr luue is ay ilike new. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints l. (Katerine) 1118 My dere lord Ihesu criste..þat is my luf and paramor. c 1475 Songs & Carols 15th C. (Warton Club) 48 To his moder then gan he [Christ] say,..My swete moder, myn paramour. 1492 Ryman Poems lxvii. 2 in Archiv Stud. neu. Spr. LXXXIX. 235 [Mary to Christ] Myne owne dere sonne and paramoure. 1581 Marbeck Bk. of Notes 1171 Thus prune and pricke vp your selues, and God himselfe shall be your paramour. |
c. The lady-love of a knight, for whose love he did battle; hence, the object of chivalrous admiration and attachment. poet.
| 1503 Dunbar Thistle & Rose 180 The commoun voce vpraiss of birdis small,..Welcome to be our princes of honour, Our perle, our plesans and our paramour. c 1590 Greene Fr. Bacon vi. 37 Suffice to me he's Englands paramour. 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. 33 He may declare his deere affection to his Paramour [i.e. Greene] or his pure honesty to the world. 1630 B. Jonson Chloridia ad fin., Chloris, the queen of flowers:..The top of paramours. |
3. An illicit or clandestine lover or mistress taking the place, but without the rights, of a husband or wife. Now, the illicit partner of a married man or woman.
| c 1386 Chaucer Wife's Prol. 454 My fourthe housbonde was a reuelour This is to seyn he hadde a paramour. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) iv. 24 He seyde, he wolde ben hire lemman or paramour. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour L ij, Ones he was gone for to see his paramours in the wynter. a 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV 193 b, She might so fortune of his peramour and concubyne to be chaunged to his wyfe & lawfull bedfelow. 1598 Drayton Heroic. Ep. vii. 175, I sue not now thy Paramour to bee, But as a Husband to be link'd to thee. 1664 H. Morte Myst. Iniq. 257 Pranking up them⁓selves to allure their Paramours. 1816 J. Scott Vis. Paris (ed. 5) 85 A woman can seldom possess a lover before marriage, and is as seldom without a variety of paramours after. 1832 G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 224 A Russian princess..poisoned by Catherine II, who had her husband for a paramour. |
▪ II. [paramour v.
‘to love’ is given in some Dicts. on the strength of the subjoined passage; but prob. ‘loueth’ has been accidentally omitted by the scribe.
| c 1450 Merlin 47, I knowe a faire lady that Vter paramours. [Cf. Ibid. 9 That she loued the holy man paramours.]] |