Amour

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˈmʊə/

Definitions

1. A secret or illicit romantic relationship between two people
2. An intimate romantic liaison often conducted in secrecy or outside conventional bounds
3. A romantic involvement that is kept hidden or known only to a few people

Etymology: The word's pronunciation is the odd part. English expected "amour" to sound like "AM-er", the way "clamour" or "enamour" sounds, but it kept the French pronunciation, roughly "uh-MOOR", because it was borrowed repeatedly from French rather than settling into English speech the way older loanwords did. The spelling and sound were kept in step with French, so the word still sounds foreign to many English speakers. The word comes from Middle French "amour", which descends from Old French "amor" and ultimately from the Latin "amor", meaning love or passionate attachment. Latin "amor" belongs to the verb "amare", to love, so the family of words built on that root has always been about affection. English "enamour" and "enamoured" show the same lineage, and in them the English pronunciation did win out.

Synonyms: love, affection, passion, romance, infatuation

Antonyms: hatred, animosity, aversion, dislike, indifference