Talk:philander
I tried to find the female equivalent of this word but failed. Is there no definition for philgyner? I assume that philgyner would be defined as:
To make love to men; to play the female flirt.
Can anyone verify this?
If this word does not exist before now (which I highly doubt though it may take another form) I suggest this be added anyway and linked to the definition of philander and vice versa. What constitutes the creation/adoption of a word?
- The word would be philogyne. (-ander doesn't take the Greek linking -o- in compounds because it starts with a vowel, but -gyne does. And the -r is part of the root of -andr-, not something that would migrate to -gyne.) The word doesn't seem to be in English but Google suggests it appears in French dictionaries.
- The word is not in use so we won't be adding it. See WT:CFI. Equinox ◑ 01:41, 22 March 2015 (UTC)
(possibly) finding and adding a quotation of Congreve[edit]
The last time I checked, the first definition [entry] for "noun", here, contained [the template instance]
{{rfquotek|en|Congreve}}
which ... expands to (it is displayed as):
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Congreve to this entry?)
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Congreve to this entry?)
and ... I am not sure about the answer, but ... I did a search for [the word] "philander" at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1292/1292-h/1292-h.htm , and ... I found ONE instance of that word there. Your guess is as good as ^H^H^H better than mine, whether that could be turned in to a suitable quotation of Congreve for this entry. --Mike Schwartz (talk) 06:12, 15 December 2020 (UTC)
- This use does attest to the term as a noun, but not to the sense. It may as well (or even more likely) mean philanderer here. --Lambiam 22:04, 15 December 2020 (UTC)
- The term is glossed as “dawdling lover” here, and its etymology is given as stemming from the name of Philander, a young Dutch knight, who slew Argaeus, baron of Servia, and married his wife Gabrina, only to be poisoned by her – a story related in Orlando Furioso, Canto XXI (Filandro in the Italian text). I cannot evaluate the merits of this etymology. --Lambiam 22:36, 15 December 2020 (UTC)