different between lover vs gallant

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English lovere, luffer, lufere, equivalent to love +? -er.

Alternative forms

• lovyer (dialectal or obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?l?v?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?l?v?/
• Hyphenation: lov?er
• Rhymes: -?v?(?)

Noun

lover (plural lovers)

1. One who loves and cares for another person in a romantic way; a sweetheart, love, soulmate, boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse.

   Synonyms: love, love interest, spouse, sweetheart, significant other; see also Thesaurus:lover
2. A sexual partner, especially one with whom someone is having an affair.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sexual partner

   • 2018 January 17, "Libra Woman: Personality Traits: Love & More", Astrology.com [1]

     A Libra woman seems to always be in love - either with her long term partner or with an ever-changing series of rotating lovers.

3. A person who loves something.

   Synonym: connoisseur
4. (West Country, with "my") An informal term of address for any friend.

Derived terms

• book lover, booklover
• Latin lover
• loverhood
• lover's lane / lovers' lane

Descendants

• ? German: Lover

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

lover (plural lovers)

1. Obsolete form of louver.

Anagrams

• Vlorë

Dutch

Alternative forms

• loover (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle Dutch lover, originally the plural of loof. As with other words with plurals in -er, eventually this was substituted with -eren, creating loveren. This new plural was then reanalysed as a separate noun and a new singular form lover was back-formed from it.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?lo?.v?r/
• Hyphenation: lo?ver
• Rhymes: -o?v?r

Noun

lover n (plural lovers, diminutive lovertje n)

1. foliage

Synonyms

• gebladerte
• lommer

Anagrams

• vloer

French

Etymology

A 17th century borrowing from North Sea Germanic language verb "lofen, lufen". The 1986 Dictionnaire de l'Académie française identifies the source as Low German (Dutch Low Saxon or German Low German); Jan de Vries' Nederlands Etymologisch Woordenboek (which identifies it as a possible cognate of Dutch leuver) suggests East Frisian instead.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?.ve/

Verb

lover

1. to coil (a rope or cord), to fake a line
2. (reflexive, of a snake) to coil up, wind up; to curl up

Conjugation

Further reading

• “lover” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• voler

Middle English

Noun

lover (plural lovers)

1. lover

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

lover m pl

1. indefinite masculine plural of lov

Verb

lover

1. present tense of love

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

Alternative forms

• lovar m pl

Noun

lover f pl

1. indefinite feminine plural of lov

Etymology 2

Verb

lover

1. present of lova

English

Alternative forms

• gallaunt (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From Middle English galant, galaunt, from Old French galant (“courteous; dashing; brave”), present participle of galer (“to rejoice; make merry”), from gale (“pomp; show; festivity; mirth”); either from Frankish *wala- (“good, well”), from Proto-Germanic *wal-, from Proto-Indo-European *welh?- (“to choose, wish”); or alternatively from Frankish *gail (“merry; mirthful; proud; luxuriant”), from Proto-Germanic *gailaz (“merry; excited; luxurious”), related to Dutch geil (“horny; lascivious; salacious; lecherous”), German geil (“randy; horny; lecherous; wicked”), Old English g?l (“wanton; wicked; bad”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æl?nt/
• Rhymes: -æl?nt

Adjective

gallant (comparative more gallant, superlative most gallant)

1. brave, valiant.
2. honorable.

   • Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

3. grand, noble.
4. (obsolete) Showy; splendid; magnificent; gay; well-dressed.

   • This town [is built in a very gallant place.

Related terms

• gallantly
• gallantry

Translations

Etymology 2

From French

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???lænt/, /??æl?nt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???l?nt/, /??æl?nt/
• Rhymes: -ænt

Adjective

gallant (comparative more gallant, superlative most gallant)

1. Polite and attentive to ladies; courteous to women; chivalrous.

Translations

Noun

gallant (plural gallants)

1. (dated) A fashionable young man who is polite and attentive to women.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 1 scene 2

     PROSPERO: […] this gallant which thou see'st / Was in the wrack; and but he's something stain'd / with grief,—that beauty's canker,—thou mightst call him / A goodly person […]

2. One who woos, a lover, a suitor, a seducer.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

     […] they were discovered in a very improper manner by the husband of the gypsy, who, from jealousy it seems, had kept a watchful eye over his wife, and had dogged her to the place, where he found her in the arms of her gallant.

   • 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, Act III, Scene II, verses 140–143

     The ignominy of that whisper’d tale / About a midnight gallant, seen to climb / A window to her chamber neighbour’d near, / I will from her turn off, […]

3. (nautical) topgallant

Translations

Verb

gallant (third-person singular simple present gallants, present participle gallanting, simple past and past participle gallanted)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To attend or wait on (a lady).

2. (obsolete, transitive) To handle with grace or in a modish manner.

References

• gallant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Welsh

Alternative forms

• gallan (colloquial)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??a?ant/

Verb

gallant

1. (literary) third-person plural present/future of gallu

Mutation