Word of the Week: Amorous

Source: Oxford Dictionaries

Valentine’s Day is this Saturday, so here’s a more romantic word for this week’s vocabulary post. For those of us who enjoy writing romance, sometimes we need just the right word to convey the passion between our characters. And let’s just say that for spicier interactions, “amorous” is on my favorites list.

An “amorous” action is one relating to love or sexual desire. The word can be traced back through the Old French adjective amoros (“in love”) to the medieval Latin adjective amorosus. These in turn stem from the Latin noun amor, which means “love”.

The last time I used the word “amorous” in a story was to describe a kiss between a couple of teenage characters who were desperately in love. I needed an adjective that would accurately define their level of passion without being too explicit, as most of my readers were relatively young and innocent. For that particular purpose, I believe this word worked perfectly well to convey my characters’ love and desire for each other. If you too enjoy romance with plenty of passion, I’m sure you’ll have no trouble writing some “amorous” scenes into your stories! Good luck!

What are your thoughts on this word? Any suggestions for future “Word of the Week” featured words?