amour (n.)

c. 1300, "love," from Old French amor "love, affection, friendship; loved one" (11c.), from Latin amor "love, affection, strong friendly feeling" (sometimes used of feelings for sons or brothers, but it especially meant sexual love), from amare "to love" (see Amy). The accent shifted 15c.-17c. to the first syllable as the word became nativized, then shifted back as the sense "illicit love affair" became primary 17c. and the word was felt to be an imported euphemism.

A common ME word for love, later accented ámour (cf. enamour). Now with suggestion of intrigue and treated as a F[rench] word. [Weekley]

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to amour

Amy

fem. proper name, from Old French Amee, literally "beloved," from fem. past participle of amer "to love," from Latin amare "to love, be in love with; find pleasure in," Proto-Italic *ama- "to take, hold," from a PIE root meaning "take hold of," also the source of Sanskrit amisi, amanti "take hold of; swear;" Avestan *ama- "attacking power;" Greek omnymi "to swear," anomotos "under oath;" Old Irish namae "enemy." According to de Vaan, "The Latin meaning has developed from 'to take the hand of' [to] 'regard as a friend'."

amour-propre (n.)

1775, French, "sensitive self-love, self-esteem;" see amour and proper.

Vanity usually gives the meaning as well, &, if as well, then better. [Fowler]

Middle English had it, translated, as proper love "self-love."

Trends of amour

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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affair

c. 1300, afere, "what one has to do, ordinary business," from Anglo-French afere, Old French afaire "business, event; rank, estate" (12c., Modern French affaire), from the infinitive phrase à faire "to do," from Latin ad "to" (see ad-) + facere "to do, make" (from PIE root *dhe-

liaison

1640s, originally in English as a cookery term for a thickening agent for sauces, from French liaison "a union, a binding together" (13c.), from Late Latin ligationem (nominative ligatio) "a binding," from past participle stem of Latin ligare "to bind" (from PIE root *leig- "to t

paramour

early 14c., "a lover or wooer" of either sex, noun use of adverbial phrase par amour (c. 1300) "passionately, with strong...love or desire," from Anglo-French and Old French par amour, from accusative of amor "love," from amare "to love" (see Amy...

akimbo

"with the hands on the hips and the elbows bent outward at sharp angles," c. 1400, in kenebowe, of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle English phrase in keen bow "at a sharp angle" (with keen in its Middle English sense of "sharp" + bow "arch"), or from a Scandinavian word akin t

avalanche

"fall or slide of a mass of snow on a mountain slope," 1763, from French avalanche (17c.), from Romansch (Swiss) avalantze "descent," altered (by metathesis of -l- and -v-, probably influenced by Old French avaler "to descend, go down," avalage "descent, waterfall, avalanche") fr

cardinal

early 12c., "one of the ecclesiastical princes who constitute the sacred college," from Medieval Latin cardinalis, originally as a noun "one of the presbyters of the chief (cardinal) churches of Rome," short for cardinalis ecclesiae Romanae or episcopus cardinalis, from Latin car

priest

Middle English prēst, "cleric ranking below a bishop and above a deacon, a parish priest," from Old English preost, which probably was shortened from the older Germanic form represented by Old Saxon and Old High German prestar, Old Frisian prestere, all from Vulgar Latin *prester

scissors

"pair of shears of medium or small size," late 14c., sisoures, also cisours, sesours, cisurs, etc., from Old French cisoires (plural) "shears," from Vulgar Latin *cisoria (plural) "cutting instrument," from *cisus (in compounds such as Latin excisus, past participle of excidere "

conquer

c. 1200, cunquearen, "to achieve" (a task), from Old French conquerre "conquer, defeat, vanquish," from Vulgar Latin *conquaerere (for Latin conquirere) "to search for, procure by effort, win," from assimilated form of Latin com-, here perhaps an intensive prefix (see com-), + qu

panic

"sudden mass terror," especially an exaggerated fright affecting a number of persons without visible cause or inspired by trifling cause or danger, 1708, from an earlier adjective (c. 1600, modifying fear, terror, etc.), from French panique (15c.), from Greek panikon, literally "

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updated on September 20, 2022

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