His "life assistant"
Wed, 2007-07-25 15:55
#1
His "life assistant"
Wed, 2007-07-25 15:55
#2
Quote from a local family business newsletter (names changed to protect the --- well, you decide.)
"A and B have set up this venture to support their son C. On most Saturdays in the summer you will find their tent parked on our lawn, and B and son D will be cooking up some fries. C and his life assistant Sue will be supervising and enjoying hobnobbing with the customers."
As terms for the "Person of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters" or "Person of an Appropriate Sex Sharing Living Quarters" I've seen "life partner," partner, mate, spouse, companion, girlfriend, significant other, lover, paramour, cohabitor, conjoint, co-vivant, "woman in my life," and even "other half," but never "life assistant." I wonder if it was supposed to be funny?
[ 25 July 2007: Message edited by: Wilf Day ]
Wed, 2007-07-25 16:23
#3
Is C disabled? The term "life assistant" sounds to me more like the kind of person one might hire if they need help getting in and out of a wheelchair, or with other personal needs of that sort.
I also noted that A and B set up the venture to "support" their son, C, so I was imagining he might need the "support" because he had special, and potentially costly, needs. I also note that C doesn't do any of the cooking, he just watches and hobnobs with the customers.
[ 25 July 2007: Message edited by: robbie_dee ]
Wed, 2007-07-25 17:14
#4
Yeah, my understanding of the term "life assistant" is someone who assists people with paralysis or other mobility issues.
[ 25 July 2007: Message edited by: oldgoat ]
Wed, 2007-07-25 17:47
#5
Wilf, you've heard of people referring to their committed partner as "my paramour"?? [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
Actually, that could be kind of interesting. Talk about a conversation stopper, though!
"Hey, long time no see! How long has it been? Have you met my paramour, Michelle?"
"Your...? Er...I...that is...hi, Michelle, um, nice to meet you."
Wed, 2007-07-25 19:34
#6
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
[b]Wilf, you've heard of people referring to their committed partner as "my paramour"?? [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
[/b]
No, but I've heard it used by others, as a joke -- "he was there with his new paramour."
Thu, 2007-07-26 05:47
#7
One time, in a certain political group, when one of the leaders of the group left/was shoved out, a caption under his and his gf's picture described her as his "comprodor"
dictionary. com describes comprodor as:
"An intermediary; a go-between.
A native-born agent in China and certain other Asian countries formerly employed by a foreign business to serve as a collaborator or intermediary in commercial transactions. "
oh those wacky lefties
Thu, 2007-07-26 05:51
#8
quote:
Originally posted by Wilf Day:
[b]
No, but I've heard it used by others, as a joke -- "he was there with his new paramour."[/b]
Some joke. If a woman is promiscuous, she's a slut. If a man is promiscuous, the woman he's with still gets blamed - except she becomes a paramour.
Thu, 2007-07-26 06:11
#9
I've always thought of the word "paramour" as having an illicit romanticism about it. It refers to the lover of someone who is married -- either male or female but I usually think of a paramour as male.
Thu, 2007-07-26 06:13
#10
Heh. In which case the focus is still on the less guilty party. I mean, it's not like the "paramour" is breaking any vows. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]
Strange, I've always thought of the word "paramour" as referring to a woman, not a man.
Thu, 2007-07-26 06:19
#11
the first definition confirms your views. But check out the second.
Dictionary.com
quote:
par·a·mour (pār'ə-mŏŏr') Pronunciation Key
n. A lover, especially one in an adulterous relationship.[Middle English, from par amour, by way of love, passionately, from Anglo-Norman : par, by (from Latin per; see per1 in Indo-European roots) + amour, love (from Latin amor, from amāre, to love).]
c.1300, noun use of adv. phrase par amour (c.1300) "passionately, with strong love or desire," from Anglo-Fr. par amour, from acc. of amor "love." Originally a term for Christ (by women) or the Virgin Mary (by men), it came to mean "darling, sweetheart" (c.1350) and "mistress, concubine, clandestine lover" (c.1386).
hmmm. neat-o
Thu, 2007-07-26 07:02
#12
From the online Thesaurus, another perspective:
quote:
1. paramour - a woman's lover:
a)fancy man
b)lover - a significant other to whom you are not related by marriage2. paramour - a woman who cohabits with an important man:
concubine, courtesan, doxy, odalisque
kept woman, mistress, fancy woman - an adulterous woman; a woman who has an ongoing extramarital sexual relationship with a man.
Thu, 2007-07-26 12:42
#13
Catchfire
According to the OED, paramour can be used as a verb (to love, obs. rare) and an adverb (i.e. par amour, obs.).
Her paramour paramoured her with a heart that beat paramour.
Thu, 2007-07-26 12:58
#14
"Doxy" and "odalisque" are new words to me. They're both actually kind of nice-sounding.
Concubine, not so much. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
Thu, 2007-07-26 16:21
#15
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
[b]"Doxy" and "odalisque" are new words to me. They're both actually kind of nice-sounding.[/b]
I had the idea "doxy" was a Boswellesque word for hooker.
[url=http://www.psychedelic-library.org/future.htm]But here's a quote as recent as 1970:[/url]
quote:
Those older men and women exercising structural and moral authority (Paterson, 1966), often called collectively the Establishment, have been alarmed by psychedelics for rather less than five years. Their attitude might be described in the terms Aneurin Bevan used for an old man approaching a young bride: "... fascinated, sluggish, and apprehensive." The impetuous young, however, always at the heart of any anti-establishment movement, rush in with all the rash ardor of Romeo and Juliet. Medical men, though less worried about morals or legality, are properly concerned with the health of the young lovers, and have been debating, not without acrimony, whether the entrancing psychedelic bride is a delicious and sexy houri or a poxy doxy.
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
[b]Concubine, not so much. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img] [/b]
Anyone can have a mistress, but only the emperor can have a concubine. And then there was
[url=http://www.royalty.nu/Asia/China/TzuHsi.html]Empress Tzu Hsi, the concubine who rose to become ruler of China.[/url] After whom was modelled, I think, the Empress Hoshi Sato in[url=http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/9515.html] the only really funny episode of Star Trek: Enterprise.[/url]
Thu, 2007-07-26 17:42
#16
Didn't Frank Magazine refer to illicit female lovers as "concubines"? I can't remember whether they referred to Mike Harris's mistress that way or not. I wasn't overly crazy about that since I thought it was kind of sexist, but I have to admit, they got a good laugh out of me when they called the couple "Dunn and Dumber".
Sun, 2007-08-19 06:22
#17
quote:
Originally posted by oldgoat:
[b]Yeah, my understanding of the term "life assistant" is someone who assists people with paralysis or other mobility issues.[/b]
And that was indeed the case here. I guess I don't really know it all. [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img]
Sun, 2007-08-19 07:05
#18
Oh, Wilf, say it ain't so!