out-paramour the Turk

English

The Harem Dancer by Sandor Alexander Svoboda

Etymology

Uttered by the character Edgar in Shakespeare's King Lear (see quote). Likely a reference to one of various Ottoman Sultans (often referred to as the Grand Turk) famous for their large harems, or to the more general practice of polygyny associated with Islam.

Verb

out-paramour the Turk (third-person singular simple present out-paramours the Turk, present participle out-paramouring the Turk, simple past and past participle out-paramoured the Turk)

1. (archaic, idiomatic) To have many romantic affairs.
   • c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

     wine loued I deeply, dice deerely, and in woman out paromord the Turke

   • 1766, Evan Lloyd, The Methodist‎^[1], reprint edition, University of California, Los Angeles, published 1972, →OCLC:

     Thus Woman, Nature’s chastest work, / Lust-struck, out-paramours the Turk.

   • 1849, Eliot Warburton, Memoirs of Prince Rupert, and the Cavaliers, volume 2, London: Richard Bentley (publisher), →OCLC, page 316:

     Another pamphlet asserts of them that "they out-swear the French, out-drink the Dutch, and out-paramour the Turk."

   • 1855, Blanche Dearwood, 2nd edition, New York: Bunce & Brother, →OCLC, page 308:

     You know Poor Tom's frightful category: false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand, hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey; loving wine deeply, dice dearly, and in woman out-paramouring the Turk.

   • 1881 August 28, “Both Sides of a Story”, in Memphis Daily Appeal, volume 40, number 213, Memphis, TN, →ISSN, page 2, column 8:

     He is charged, too, with having out-paramoured the Turk; making himself notorious in New York by his attentions to a Russian lady of distinction; […]

   • 1882 March 18, “Review. The Marriages of the Bonapartes.”, in The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, volume 33, number 1132 (new series), New South Wales, →ISSN, page 413, column 3:

     Napoleon, it has been well said, "out-paramoured the Turk." The history of his liaisons would fill a large volume.

   • 1884 August 7, “Public Opinion.”, in St. Johnsbury Caledonian, volume 47, number 2454, St. Johnsbury, VT: C.M. Stone & Co., →ISSN, page 2, column 5:

     If a candidate for president of the United States were as wicked a man as Edgar depicts himself—one that swore as many oaths as he spoke words, and broke them in the sweet face of Heaven; one that slept in the contriving of lust and waked to do it; who loved wine dearly, dice dearly, and in woman out-paramoured the Turk—we should not say that it was much of anybody's business so long as he attended to his public duties and made no pretence to superior morality.

   • 1895, John Devoy, Rochester and the Post Express: A History of the City of Rochester […] , Rochester, NY: Post Express Printing Co., →OCLC, page 15:

     Several murders were attributed to him; he out-paramoured the Turk, having had throughout this region a variety of white and Indian mistresses; was accused of forgery and larceny, and was withal a tory in the Revolution.

   • 1897 April 16, “The Lady Killer.”, in Petersburg Times, volume 10, number 497, Petersburg, SA, →ISSN, page 115, column 1:

     He out paramoured the Turk, falling in love with half the "military ladies" of his regiment, or rather he contrived to make them fall in love with him, pay his debts, contribute to his expenses, and wink at his infidelities.

   • 1907, Frank C. Nicholson, Old German Love Songs, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, →OCLC, pages xxvi–xxvii:

     The second influence we have to consider is that of the secular Latin lyric of the Wandering Students or clerici vagantes, that sad, mad, bad, glad brotherhood of scholars who in the Middle Ages travelled in quest of learning through France and Germany, and indeed all the great countries of Europe, taking their pleasure by the way, whenever they could get it. Wine they loved deeply, dice dearly, and in women outparamoured the Turk, but literature has reason to be grateful to them, for they have left behind them a store of songs written with irresistible freshness, brilliancy, and tunefulness.

   • 1994, Paul Muldoon, “Yarrow”, in The Annals of Chile, London: Faber & Faber, →ISBN, page 148:

     It was now too late for Erec to pull out of Enid / while she masturbated her clitoris / and S— and I, like, outparamoured the Turk