February 2007

Just Foolin' Around

February is the perfect time to fool around with terms of love. By typing love into both the Definition and the Etymology fields of the Unabridged Dictionary Advanced Search, you get a list of 39 terms, ranging from agape to Venus. Here are a few of the more delightful terms for the 14th.

agapemone [from Agapemone, a communistic establishment that was founded about 1849 at Spaxton, England, and had a reputation for immoral behavior . . . ] : a free-love institution <allow Christopher to run an Agapemone in what was after all her own house — F.M. Ford>

belamour obsolete : one who is loved

inamorata [Italian inamorata, from innamorare to inspire with love . . . ] : a woman with whom one is in love or has intimate relations . . . 

pander [from Pandare, character who procured for Troilus the love of Cressida in Troilus and Criseyde (1374) poem by Chaucer] : a go-between in love intrigues . . . 

Paphian [from Paphos, ancient city of Cyprus that was the center of worship of the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite] : relating especially to illicit love : wanton <sail for some vague Paphian bourn — Robert Frost>

spoon [perhaps from the Welsh custom of an engaged man's presenting his fiancée with an elaborately carved wooden spoon] : to make love to by caressing, kissing, and talking amorously : pet : neck; sometimes : woo; court