Brewer's: Amoret

brought up by Venus in the courts of love. She is the type of female loveliness—young, handsome, gay, witty, and good; soft as a rose, sweet as a violet, chaste as a lily, gentle as a dove, loving everybody and by all beloved. She is no Diana to make “gods and men fear her stern frown”; no Minerva to “freeze her foes into congealed stone with rigid looks of chaste austerity”; but a living, breathing virgin, with a warm heart, and beaming eye, and passions strong, and all that man can wish and woman want. She becomes the loving, tender wife of Sir Scudamore. Timias finds her in the arms of Corflambo ( sensual passion); combats the monster unsuccessfully, but wounds the lady. —Spencer: Faëry Queen, book iii.

Amoret

a love-song, love-knot, love-affair, love personified. A pretty word, which might be reintroduced.

“He will be in his amorets, and his canzonets, his pastorals, and his madrigals.” —Heywood: Love's Mistress.

For not icladde in silke was he, But all in flouris and flourettes, I-paintid all with amorettes.

Romance of the Rose, 892.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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