When a married man has a woman on the side, she’s referred to as his mistress. What is (if there is at all) the gender specific term for a man having an affair with a married woman?
We tossed out everything from “lucky” to “F*ck on the side” to “gigolo” but weren’t satisfied with them.
Yeah, boy toy certainly works as a slang/vernacular term (as do pool boy and gardener, nyuck, nyuck) but, it seems to me that mistress is pretty much a formal term and that there should be some corresponding term for a male lover out-of-wedlock.
Well now, wait a moment. A “mistress” as I understand the term is a woman supported by a married man in return for love, understanding, and (ahem) sexual gratification outside of his marriage.
But your question alludes to a man who is simply “having an affair with” a married woman. These are two quite different scenarios. The first of my examples applies only to the male equivalent of “mistress.” The other two cross the spectrum.
Well, o.k. then the formal male counterpart to a mistress (by the above definition) would be a gigolo which the crummy Merriam Webster Dictionary here at work defines as “a man supported by a woman for the purposes of blah, blah, blah”.
So, this muddies up the water a bit. What then are the formal terms for lovers outside of marriage (other than adulterer and adulteress) who are not supported by his or her paramour?
The term “boy toy” refers to a woman who has many male LOVERS. When Madonna was young and wore all the rosaries and crosses, she had a belt that said “boy toy”, referring to herself. I think when speaking of a man, the term would be “toy boy”.
“Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true” -Albert Einstein
I think the official term is “paramour” but I don’t like it as much as mistress because it’s easy to misinterpret. I mean it’s not as well known that it refers to a married person’s lover.
My aunt Mila has one. He’s twenty-seven years younger than she is, and right now they’re living in Prague. He’s a Greek shaygets named Stavros. We all call him Aunt Mila’s consort, except my mother’s mother, who just calls him “the shaygets.”
Aunt Mila has money, because her first husband cleared a bundle importing and exporting. He figured out back in the 70’s (or thereabouts) that Sony would be big, bought stock, and the rest is history.
–Rowan
Shopping is still cheaper than therapy. --my Aunt Franny
According to Webster’s, “consort” means an associate or spouse (though that’s not how I always understood the word); but “paramour” is defined as “an illicit lover”, which sounds pretty close to what I think you mean.
HOW do you pronounce it? I couldn’t make heads or tails of that. Great word though, I’m thinking of getting one myself and that will come in very helpful.