leman

See also: lemán, Leman, and Léman

English

Alternative forms

• leaman
• lemman (13th–17th centuries)
• lemon (15th–16th centuries)

Etymology

From Middle English lemman, variant of leofman, from Old English *lēofmann ("lover; sweetheart"; attested as a personal name), equivalent to lief +‎ man ("beloved person").

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛmən/, /ˈliːmən/
• Rhymes: -ɛmən

Noun

leman (plural lemans)

1. (archaic) One beloved; a lover, a sweetheart of either sex (especially a secret lover, gallant, or mistress).
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter V, in Le Morte Darthur, book VI:
     :

     Thenne within an houre there came the knyghte to whome the pauelione ought / And he wende that his lemā had layne in that bedde / and soo he laid hym doune besyde syr Launcelot / and toke hym in his armes and beganne to kysse hym / And whanne syre launcelot felte a rough berd kyssyng hym / he starte oute of the bedde lyghtely / and the other knyȝt after hym / and eyther of hem gate their swerdes in theire handes

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.i:

     Faire Venus seemde vnto his bed to bring / Her, whom he waking euermore did weene, / To be the chastest flowre, that ay did spring / On earthly braunch, the daughter of a king, / Now a loose Leman to vile seruice bound […].

   • 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:

     The prisoner I speak of is better booty—a jolly monk riding to visit his leman, an I may judge by his horse-gear and wearing apparel.

2. (often negative) A paramour.
   • [1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Manciples Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales (in Middle English), [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, folio xcix, recto:

     There is but litel difference truely / Betwyxt a wyfe, that is of hye degre / If of her body dishoneſt ſhe be / And a poore wenche, other than this / If it ſo be they werke bothe amys / But for the gentyl is in eſtate aboue / She ſhal be called his lady and his loue / And for that tother is a poore woman / She ſhal be called his wench, or his lemmã [...]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)]

   • 1915, Oscar Wilde, A House of Pomegranates: The Fisherman and his Soul:

     '...They are lost, I tell thee, they are lost. For them there is no heaven nor hell, and in neither shall they praise God’s name.’
     ‘Father,’ cried the young Fisherman, ‘thou knowest not what thou sayest. Once in my net I snared the daughter of a King. She is fairer than the morning star, and whiter than the moon. For her body I would give my soul, and for her love I would surrender heaven. Tell me what I ask of thee, and let me go in peace.’
     ‘Away! Away!’ cried the Priest: ‘thy leman is lost, and thou shalt be lost with her.’
     And he gave him no blessing, but drove him from his door.

   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song:

     And he sent the news to William the Lyon, sitting drinking the wine and fondling his bonny lemans in Edinburgh Town, and William made him the Knight of Kinraddie […].

Anagrams

• Elman, Melan, lamen, nelma