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Paramour vs Paragon - What's the difference?

paramour | paragon |

As nouns the difference between paramour and paragon

is that paramour is an illicit lover, either male or female while paragon is a person of preeminent qualities, who acts as a pattern or model of some given (especially positive) quality.

As an adverb paramour

is passionately, out of sexual desire; devotedly.

As a verb paragon is

to compare; to parallel; to put in rivalry or emulation with.

paramour

English

Alternative forms

* paramours

Adverb

(-)
  • *Chaucer
  • *:For par amour I loved her first ere thou.
  • *:
  • *:Is this trouthe said Palomydes / Thenne shall we hastely here of sire Tristram / And as for to say that I loue la Beale Isoud peramours I dare make good that I doo / and that she hath my seruyse aboue alle other ladyes / and shalle haue the terme of my lyf
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • An illicit lover, either male or female.
  • * (rfdate), Macaulay:
  • The seducer appeared with dauntless front, accompanied by his paramour .

    Synonyms

    * (l) * (l)

    paragon

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person of preeminent qualities, who acts as a pattern or model of some given (especially positive) quality.
  • In the novel, Constanza is a paragon of virtue who would never compromise her reputation.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Man, the paragon of animals!
  • * Emerson
  • The riches of sweet Mary's son, / Boy-rabbi, Israel's paragon .
  • * '>citation
  • (obsolete) A companion; a match; an equal.
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
  • Philoclea, who indeed had no paragon but her sister
    (Spenser)
  • (obsolete) Comparison; competition.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.ix:
  • good by paragone / Of euill, may more notably be rad, / As white seemes fairer, macht with blacke attone [...].
  • (typography) A size of type between great primer and double pica.
  • A flawless diamond of at least 100 carats.
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To compare; to parallel; to put in rivalry or emulation with.
  • (Sir Philip Sidney)
  • To compare with; to equal; to rival.
  • (Spenser)
  • * Glover
  • In arms anon to paragon the morn, / The morn new rising.
  • To serve as a model for; to surpass.
  • * Shakespeare
  • He hath achieved a maid / That paragons description and wild fame.
  • To be equal; to hold comparison.