Timeline for A man with a wife is a husband, a man with a concubine is what?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 25, 2015 at 22:28 | comment | added | WS2 | @hildred Indeed. According to the OED a Lothario is a libertine, a deceiver or a rake - not nice words! | |
| Apr 25, 2015 at 22:20 | comment | added | hildred | The reason I dislike this answer is that it implies promiscuity which is not always the case. | |
| Apr 25, 2015 at 22:09 | comment | added | WS2 | @scottb OED sense 7a defines mistress as A woman other than his wife with whom a man has a long-lasting sexual relationship.. However it is clear from a 1989 example that mistress implies a sexual partner taken by an otherwise married man. The OED takes decades to catch up with social change. But I agree with you that a woman nowadays living in partnership with a single, divorced or widowed man would not normally be termed a mistress.The word tends to be reserved for an additional relationship, often entered clandestinely with a married man, or a man with another long-term partner. | |
| Apr 25, 2015 at 22:00 | review | Low quality posts | |||
| Apr 26, 2015 at 4:07 | |||||
| Apr 25, 2015 at 21:58 | comment | added | hildred | @WS2, you are very close to my thinking. | |
| Apr 25, 2015 at 21:49 | comment | added | scottb | I would also not agree that any woman who cohabits with a man who is not her husband is a mistress. The word has the sense of "a woman other than his wife with whom a married man has a sexual relationship." | |
| Apr 25, 2015 at 21:49 | comment | added | WS2 | @scottb The OED defines a concubine as a woman who lives with a man without being his wife - a kept mistress. Your comment seems to suggest they are not synonymous. | |
| Apr 25, 2015 at 21:48 | comment | added | scottb | Lothario is not a perfect counterpart to either mistress or concubine. The former is a name given to a pattern of behavior. The latter are terms that are given to a role. | |
| Apr 25, 2015 at 21:46 | comment | added | WS2 | It should be spelled with a capital L - Lothario, since it refers to the character in Nicholas Rowe's play The Fair Penitent (1703). But I am not sure I agree that any man who cohabits with a woman who is not his wife might be termed a Lothario. It suggests a 'libertine, a deceiver or a rake* (OED) and it seems quite excessive to refer to the many millions of men in western society who currently live with female partners in unmarried, though otherwise monogamous relationships, as Lotharios. | |
| Apr 25, 2015 at 21:43 | comment | added | scottb | Lothario would be most appropriate to the man with a mistress, although it would not be inappropriate to a man with a concubine (depending on context). | |
| Apr 25, 2015 at 21:38 | comment | added | hildred | which one? the guy with the mistress, or the concubine? I would assume mistress as the concubine's children can inherit. | |
| Apr 25, 2015 at 21:38 | review | First posts | |||
| Apr 25, 2015 at 22:48 | |||||
| Apr 25, 2015 at 21:36 | history | answered | scottb | CC BY-SA 3.0 |