enamor

EnglishEdit

WOTD – 17 August 2010

Alternative formsEdit

enamour (British spelling)
inamor (archaic)
inamour (archaic)

EtymologyEdit

Old French enamourer, enamorer; prefix en- (Latin in) + Old French & French amour (“love”), Latin amor. See amour, and confer inamorato.

PronunciationEdit

(UK) IPA^(key): /ɪˈnæmə(ɹ)/
Audio (US)
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Audio (AU)
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Rhymes: -æmə(r)

VerbEdit

enamor (third-person singular simple present enamors, present participle enamoring, simple past and past participle enamored) (American spelling)

(mostly in the passive, followed by "of" or "with") To cause to be in love.
- 1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act IV, Scene I:
  Me-thought I was enamoured of an Asse.
- 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, OCLC 316392309, Act III, scene i:
  By Phœbus, here's a moſt neate fine ſtreete; is't not? I proteſt to thee, I am enamord of this ſtreete now, more then of halfe the ſtreetes of Rome, againe; tis ſo polite, and terſe; [...]
- 1900, Leo Tolstoy, translated by William E. Smith, The Awakening: The Resurrection Chapter 86
  He was offered a chair in the university and a course abroad. But he hesitated. There was a girl of whom he became enamored, so he contemplated marriage and political activity.
(mostly in the passive) To captivate.
- 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], OCLC 864083:
  
  Passionately enamoured of this shadow of a dream.