Also 7–9 amourist. [f. L. amor or Fr. amour love + -IST.] One who professes love, a professed lover. a. usually, A votary of (sexual) love, a gallant.
1581. Sidney, Sonnet, i. Faint amorist! what, dost thou think To taste love’s honey, and not drink One dram of gall?
1620. Shelton, Don Quix., III. xxxii. 222. Tho’ I be enamoured, yet I am not of those vicious Amourists, but of your chaste Platonicks.
a. 1652. Brome, Court Beggar, I. i. An extreame Amorist desperately devoted Unto the service of some threescore Ladies.
1798. Lamb, Lett., I. (1841), 28. Like some hot amourist with glowing eyes.
1880. Webb, trans. Goethe’s Faust, I. ii. 67.
| One clings to earth, like some fond amorist, | |
| With strong organic clutch that never tires. |
b. rarely of other than sexual love.
1635. A. Stafford, Fem. Glory (1869), 115. You who have lived spirituall Amourists.
1660. Boyle, Seraph. Love, 92. Surely the Divine Amorist had cause to say that ‘herein is the love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.’
