Forms: α. 3, 5 luffer(e, 4–6 lufer, 4 lufere, lovere, luver, 5 loufer, lovare; Sc. 4–5 lufare, 4–6 luffar, 4 lyffar, 5 lufar, 6, 8 luver, 6 luvar, luvear, luwair, luif(f)ar, 7 luiver. β. 4 (8, 9 dial.) lovier, 4 loviere, lovyere, 4, 5, 8 lovyer, 8 loveyer, 4– lover. [f. LOVE v.1 + -ER1.] One who loves.
1. One who is possessed by sentiments of affection or regard towards another; a friend or well-wisher. Now rare.
c. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, i. 1. His verray lufers folous him fleand honur.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 5277. He was a frynde to my fader, & a fyn louer.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), VIII. 231. The luffers of seynte Edmund were displeasede with hym gretely þerfore.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), III. 800. He ys þi lover, lord, suerly.
1524. Sir R. Sutton’s Will, in Churton, Life, App. 543. Make a new feoffment to ten persones of my lovers and frends.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Sam., Contents xviii. Ionathas and Dauid are sworne louers.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., Ded. To … Mr. Cambden … your true lover, Ben. Jonson.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., III. ii. 49. I slewe my best Louer for the good of Rome.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Friendship (Arb.), 171. Men so Wise,… and so Extreme Louers of Themselues, as all these were.
1661. Morgan, Sph. Gentry, IV. iii. 44. The loving Company of the order of the garter hath received you their Brother Lover and fellow.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 15. A stranger, but a very warm lover of yours.
1796. Wolfe Tone, Autobiog. (1828), 147. I made my bow, and followed my new lover to his hotel.
1898. W. K. Johnson, Terra Tenebr., 34. The earth was foe to him, Let the sea be lover.
b. In the spiritual sense.
c. 1300. Cursor M., 20870. Petre was … luuer o lauerd, alsua niter.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xviii. (Egipciane), 1085. God … þat gyfis mare to his luferis þan þai cane ask.
1577. St. Aug. Manual (Longman), 108. God their lover will not take it [love] away from his lovers against their wils.
1740. C. Wesley, Hymn, Jesu, Lover of my Soul.
1748. G. White, Serm. (MS.). Every true Lover of God.
1866. J. H. Newman, Gerontius, § 1. Lover of souls! great God! I look to Thee.
2. One who is in love with, or who is enamored of a person of the opposite sex; now (exc. in plural) almost exclusively applied to the male.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 256. Leouere me beoð hire wunden þen uikiinde [MS. C. lufferes] cosses.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, IV. 295 (323). O ye loueres þat heyhe vpon the whiel Ben set of Fortune.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxi. (Clement), 455. And hyre enbrasit with al his macht, as lyffaris þat had bene intwyne.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 80. A louyere, and a lusty Bacheler.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., clxxix. Awak! awake! I bring, lufar, I bring The newis glad.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xlviii. 60. The birdis did with oppin vocis cry, O, luvaris fo, away thow dully nycht.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. xxx. 85. Loyes Rambalte had at Bride a fayre woman to his louer, whome he loued parfitely.
1557. North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr., Gen. Prol. ¶ 7/1. He [Nero] counted seuerally al the haires that his louer Pompeia had on her head.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, II. i. If I freely may discouer, What woulde please mee in my Louer: I woulde haue her faire, and wittie [etc.].
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., V. ii. 298. The stroke of death is as a Louers pinch, Which hurts, and is desir’d.
1768. Woman of Honor, III. 52. You will find few,… such desperately true lovyers.
1822. Byron, Juan, III. iii. In her first passion, woman loves her lover.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Lovier, a lover. A vulgarism, but no corruption. Not peculiar to us.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Plato, Wks. (Bohn), I. 290. If he had lover, wife, or children, we hear nothing of them.
1885. Burton, Arab. Nts. (1887), III. 101. She … said … ‘I am a lover separated from her beloved.’
b. One who loves illicitly; a gallant, paramour.
1611. Bible, Jer. iii. 1. Thou hast played the harlot with many louers.
1716. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Lady Rich, 20 Sept. A woman looks not for a lover as soon as she is married.
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 89. She answered, Thy wife has a lover.
3. One who has an affection, predilection, fancy or liking for (a thing, action or idea).
1340. Ayenb., 270. O men ne byeþ naȝt … louieres of þe wordle. Ibid. Yet eft þe wordle þyestre, uor þe louyeres of þe wordle byeþ þyestre.
1388. Wyclif, 1 Pet. iii. 13. And who is it that schal anoye ȝou if, ȝe ben sueris and louyeris of goodnesse.
c. 1420. Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 902. Fysshers of sowles, and lovers of clennes.
1568. Grafton, Chron., I. 8. Tuball … was a great lover of Musick.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 122. He was a great lover of his country.
1655. Walton, Angler, xxi. (1661), 255. Pisc. And upon all that are lovers of Vertue, and all that love to be quiet and go a fishing.
1748. Hume, Ess., Parties Gt. Brit., 97. Lovers of Liberty, but greater Lovers of Monarchy.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, Introd. Freed from the odious presence of this lover of cleanliness.
1901. Longm. Mag., Oct., 543. The book will be eagerly read by all lovers of Selborne.
4. Comb., as lover-loving adj. Also † lovers’ lair Sc., the bed of love, lover’s knot = LOVE-KNOT; lover’s leap (see LEAP sb.1 2). Often applied to a precipice in connection with some legend about the suicide of a lover by leaping down; also (allusive nonce-use), a matrimonial venture.
15[?]. Littill Interlud, 76, in Dunbar’s Poems (1893), 316. Lassis … Wald ga to luvaris lair.
c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), vi. 25. So luvaris lair no leid suld lak.
1592. Lyly, Gallathea, IV. ii. 22 (Bond). First you must vndoe all these Louers knots, because you tyed them.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, X. xii. (1866), 383. I answered by expressing my surprise at her honouring me with the offer of her hand…. To this she replied, that having a considerable fortune, it would give her pleasure to share it in her life-time with a man of honour … then, rejoined I, you have made up your mind to take a lover’s leap.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. lxxxi. While on the gay dance shone Night’s lover-loving Queen.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. vi. The river of his History … here dashes itself over that terrific Lover’s Leap; and, as a mad-foaming cataract, flies wholly into tumultuous clouds of spray!
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. viii. 98. Tying the shafts together in their centre, in a lover’s knot.
