Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

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

from The Century Dictionary.

  • With love; in love; as a lover.
  • To love; be in love with; woo.
  • noun A lover, of either sex; a wooer.
  • noun A lover, of either sex, in a bad sense; one who takes the place of a husband or wife without legal right: the only sense of the word now in use.
  • noun Love, as between the sexes; gallantry.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A lover, of either sex; a wooer or a mistress (formerly in a good sense, now only in a bad one); one who takes the place, without possessing the rights, of a husband or wife; -- used of a man or a woman.
  • noun obsolete Love; gallantry.
  • adverb obsolete By or with love, esp. the love of the sexes; -- sometimes written as two words.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An illicit lover, either male or female.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a woman who cohabits with an important man
  • noun a woman's lover

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[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).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French par amor ("for love's sake").

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Examples

  • In “Beauty and the Beast” or “The Frog Prince,” the animal paramour is an enchanted human, so by means of a deus ex machina, the beast becomes a prince.

    The Vivisection of Bone, Part 1: Romancing the Bone 2007

  • We also heard it had been rented or owned by William Randolph Hearst for his long-term paramour, Marion Davies.

    HIGH ON ARRIVAL MACKENZIE PHILLIPS 2009

  • We also heard it had been rented or owned by William Randolph Hearst for his long-term paramour, Marion Davies.

    HIGH ON ARRIVAL MACKENZIE PHILLIPS 2009

  • We also heard it had been rented or owned by William Randolph Hearst for his long-term paramour, Marion Davies.

    HIGH ON ARRIVAL MACKENZIE PHILLIPS 2009

  • He talked the Luciano gang into backing him in building his dream casino, The Flamingo, the nickname he called his paramour Virginia Hill.

    Who Are You? #2 The Daily Growler 2006

  • You need to get over yourself, learn some humility, and then you need to move on. p.s.: a nut bag is something entirely different than you think and stop using the word paramour, it makes you sound like an arrogant donkey.

    Boston.com Most Popular 2010

  • PPPlleassseee. e ... give me a break with this phony ness and go hang out with your 'paramour' - about whom you want to brag to Maria but Maria is not interested!!

    Boston.com Most Popular 2010

  • • Ultimately giving the money from his wife and children's accounts to himself and his "paramour" -- including using the money to pay for a credit card he and his girlfriend used.

    Anchorage Daily News - Alaska News 2009

  • Isn't that what the guy busted for sex with a vacuum called his paramour?

    Tweets I have known 2009

  • To top it all off, his paramour was a part-time staffer who was on the payroll and often traveled with Souder.

    And in other scandals… 2010

Comments

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  • "Should I believe that unsubstantial Death is amorous? And that the lean abhorred monster keeps Thee here in darkness to be his paramour?"

    --R&J Act 5 Scene 3

    September 19, 2009

  • Baltimorese for "power mower"

    January 4, 2011