SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Increasingly Significant Issue

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Thu, 11 Apr 2002  9:55:20 AM Eastern Daylight Time, "Joanne M. Despres" <jdespres at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM> writes:

>But seriously:  I believe "lover" is still used by GBTs, especially
>those in the above-40 age bracket, though less automatically than
>it used to be.  (I also once heard it applied by a heterosexual
>woman to her live-in boyfriend.)
>
>Joanne Despres

"lover" is frequently used to mean an extra-marital sex partner, more often the man the wife is having an affair with than the woman the husband is having an affair with.  From the old Scottish folk song:

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands, oh where ha'e ye been?
They ha' killed the Earl of Moray, and laid him on the green
He was a bra' gallant and he rade at the ring
The bonny Earl of Moray, he was the lover of the queen.

    - Jim Landau