Inamorato

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Dr. Goodword
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Inamorato

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Jun 03, 2015 8:42 pm

• inamorato •

Pronunciation: in-ê-mê-rah-to • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: A male lover, a man with whom you are in love. A woman with whom you are in love is an inamorata, the feminine form of the noun.

Notes: The Italian language keeps pretty good tabs on males and females. The word for "baby" can be either bimbo, if the baby is a boy, or bimba, if it is a girl. English, of course, does not pay close attention to this distinction, and continues to use bimbo to refer disparagingly to a female lover only. The use of suffixes like -ette and -ess to distinguish females from males is now harshly frowned upon. However, we do continue to differentiate between those with whom we are in love, as pointed out above in the Meaning.

In Play: Now that boyfriend and girlfriend have become ambiguous, today's Good Words are all the more useful: "Not only has Ally Mooney not remarried, she doesn't even have an inamorato that I am aware of." These words very clearly identify someone whom we don't simply love but are in love with: "The latest inamorata of William Arami is Marian Kine; they were made for each other."

Word History: Today's Good Word is actually the Italian word innamorato "beloved", the past participle of innamorare "to enamor" based on in "in(to)" + amore "love". Participles behave like adjectives (compare English loving and loved), and each Italian adjective usually has a masculine and feminine form. Now, since adjectives may also be used as nouns (the rich, the poor), Italian has two such nouns, masculine and feminine, for every one English has: beloved = inamorato, inamorata. The Italian verb is the direct descendant of Latin amare "to love". We no more know where this word comes from than we do where love itself comes from. Our best guess is that it was based on the universal word mama, which some children pronounce amma. I can think of no better origin for so important a word.
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LukeJavan8
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Re: Inamorato

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sat Jun 06, 2015 12:12 pm

Spanish has mijo and mija. Nice. Too bad English
has none that I am aware.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

Philip Hudson
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Re: Inamorato

Postby Philip Hudson » Sat Jun 06, 2015 9:56 pm

Luke, one cannot even say the phrase, "the distaff side," without raising hackles. Give up on opening doors for the ladies. We used to have -ess and -ette to designate some women, but no longer. Soon, with all this transgender activity, we may be relegated to the has-beens corner. I once worked with a transgender person in England. She/he was ugly even when he/she was a man. I had an old prof in the university who always said, "Cherchez la femme" when something went amiss. He would have been run out of town on a rail if he were teaching today. Can we still quote the old chestnut: "When Adman delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman."?

I'm glad I still live in the hinterlands where all the men are manly, all the women are pretty, and all the children are way above average.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

LukeJavan8
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Re: Inamorato

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sun Jun 07, 2015 12:23 pm

Who am I to condemn as well. Bruce to Caitlin? I'm pretty
tolerant, even tho' I don't play well with political correctness.
Enjoy your 'secret garden', stay safe, and I'll try as well.
Won't be long and another fad will come along.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

misterdoe
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Re: Inamorato

Postby misterdoe » Tue Jun 09, 2015 10:06 pm

I'm glad I still live in the hinterlands where all the men are manly, all the women are pretty, and all the children are way above average.
Lake Wobegon? :)

Philip Hudson
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Re: Inamorato

Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Jun 10, 2015 12:42 am

Even better than Lake Wobegon and just as fictitious.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

Perry Lassiter
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Re: Inamorato

Postby Perry Lassiter » Thu Jun 11, 2015 8:45 pm

All the Romance language, beginning with Latin have gender, as does German. I have no idea why people did this.
pl

Philip Hudson
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Re: Inamorato

Postby Philip Hudson » Fri Jun 12, 2015 2:27 am

We use the word gender for two reasons. The one English speakers most think of is sexual gender, male and female. That with neuter makes us want to equate sexual gender with linguistic gender. Since they work in English, why not? But in other languages gender matters a lot.
As mentioned, both Germanic and Latin derived languages have genders. A knife in Spanish is masculine (cuchillo), unless it is feminine (cuchilla) and then it means a knife blade.
Spanish gets along without a neuter which we need in our English pronouns.

Move farther afield and you find some languages that have more than three genders, sometimes many more.

I still open doors for ladies. On Sunday morning, I open the door for everyone that enters. It is not an attempt to be gender neutral. It is my job to do it. Many of the women give me a kiss. It isn't such a bad job after all.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

Perry Lassiter
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Re: Inamorato

Postby Perry Lassiter » Fri Jun 12, 2015 3:20 pm

In one sense, Philip, you are the most important guy in the church. Studies show that people decide whether to return in the first seven minutes - often before any staff show up or the service begins!
pl


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