Amorous

adjective

Inclined to love; feeling love, infatuation, or sexual attraction for another
Displaying love
Involving or concerning love

Usage

We are all familiar with over-emotional, obsessive, and attached partners. You know, the ones who fall too fast and too hard for every person they find attractive. Too often, they choose new love interests and claim their future with people they barely even know. Some people can't help who they are amorous for, who catches their eye or steals their heart. The love bug bites them early and often.

Someone who is amorous is not afraid to express his love. He will purchase flowers, plan surprise visits, write lengthy love letters. If he is amorously in love, he will surely admit to it in amorous presentations or expressions of love. Picture the boy strumming his guitar, singing a love poem he wrote for his prom date. Or perhaps, imagine the girl who cooks a four-course meal each night for her lover. These amorous gestures ensure love is in the air, no matter where that air may be or how quixotic those gestures may be.

When you are amorous for someone, you may express your love physically, through kind gestures, or you can simply be infatuated with someone, craving them sensually.

Example: He was amorous for her, so he wrote a poem and recited it at their anniversary dinner.

Example: The amorous Nicholas Sparks book reminded her how beautiful love can be.

Origin

Amorous developed from a rather lengthy line of derivatives. In Late Latin, amorosum, derivative of amor, meaning "Cupid" or "love," and amare, which is the action of "loving," lead to the Old French form, amorous. Around 1300, amorous blossomed into the English language like a red rose.

Derivative Words

Amorously: This adverb means to do something with love and passion.

Example: He amorously proposed to his girlfriend, kneeling before her and gently taking her hand.

Amorousness: This noun means romance and passion.

Example: You could almost feel the amorousness in the restaurant on Valentine's Day.

Amorist: This noun means lover, or someone who writes about or expresses love.

Example: Nora Roberts is quite the amorist, publishing over two hundred romance novels.

In Literature

From Martin London's My Friend Justin Feldman:

Justin was, simply put, preening. I thought I was watching a peacock doing a mating dance. I was correct. He walked directly over to a stunning blond woman nearby and sat down. In but a few minutes, we were introduced to the object of Justin's amorous display, the gorgeous and talented Linda Fairstein.

London uses amorous to describe Justin's flirty actions, which he refers to as "a mating dance," toward the girl he fancies.

From Jacques Casanova de Seingalt's The Memoires of Casanova:

This man, who had given up everything in life except his own self, fostered an amorous inclination, in spite of his age and of his gout. He loved a young girl named Therese Imer, the daughter of an actor residing near his mansion, her bedroom window being opposite to his own.

Seingalt uses amorous to explain the man's love for a young girl who lives across from him. The man has done nearly everything to express his feelings for her; he is inclined to liking her.

Mnemonic

Do not trust amorous lust.
Her kiss was amorous.
She called him "mi amor" amorously.