Dear Reader,

How would you like to extend your seductive vocabulary … and expand your amorous diction?

A rich seductive vocabulary and diverse amorous diction can not only extend your conceptual scope (and thus broaden, and deepen, your understanding) but also magnify, or otherwise enhance, your powers of enchantment.

Anyway, in my last post, I noted an article I’d read entitled 50+ Old Fashioned Insults We Should Bring Back. And, as I said then, this article promptly struck a chord with me. But, in the end, I neglected to specifically say what this was.

So, I’ll do that now. Because that article, I think, makes a TELLING and TIMELY point. Namely, that when some words go out of use and are not replaced with worthy substitutes, our vocabulary, or stock of expressions, is that much poorer for it.

Another word, or expression, with a similar meaning, meanwhile, may not HIT THE MARK, as Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, perceptively suggests:

Many words in every language are generally thought to be synonymous; but those who study the language attentively will find, that there is no such thing; they will discover some little difference, some distinction between all those words that are vulgarly called synonymous; one hath always more energy, extent, or delicacy, than another.

So, was eighteenth-century vocabulary generally CONCEPTUALLY RICHER and better suited then for the expression of more PRECISE, NUANCED, and INCISIVE thinking?

(And, if so, why? What forces then might dictate that ours should be the poorer? Or, more spiritually, what motivations and corresponding or derivative beliefs, and socio-cultural dynamics, might contribute to this impoverishment?)

It’s a question that often occurred to me whilst annotating, and otherwise enhancing, John Dryden, et al‘s translation of Ovid’s classic love seduction masterpiece Ars Amatoria (Art of Love). It occurred to me then whilst creating the unprecedented Word of Venus editions of it.

Ordinarily then, I think, our modern-day seductive vocabulary often lacks the conceptual SCOPE and DIVERSITY required for nuanced precision and incisive clarity of thought and expression – at least when compared to that of the poets, and other authors, of old whose works have endured.

So, are you feeling jaded with the LIMITED, MUNDANE, and HACKNEYED everyday amorous (or amorously-related) terms we ordinarily use today?

Well, extend your seductive vocabulary then, and expand your amorous diction, with these more EXPANSIVE, CURIOUS, and SINGULAR old-fashioned terms of seduction.

(And, once again, these terms are also comprised from the The Word of Venus Art of Love … and their timely definitions therein.)

20 Old-fashioned amorous terms and their eighteenth-century definitions

1) AMOUR

n. s. An affair of gallantry; an intrigue: generally used of vicious love.

2) ASSIGNATION

n. s. Appointment to meet, used generally of love appointments.

3) TO ATTEND

v. a. To regard; to fix the mind upon. To wait on; to accompany as inferior. To be present with, upon a summons. To accompany; to be appendant to. To wait on, as a charge. To be bent upon any object.

4) TO BEWITCH

v. a. To charm; to please to such a degree as to take away the power of resistance.

5) COMPLAISANCE

n. s. Civility; desire of pleasing; act of adulation.

6) COURT

n. s. The art of pleasing; the art of insinuation.

7) TO COURT

v. a. To woo; to solicit a woman. To solicit; to seek. To flatter; to endeavour to please.

8) TO DISSEMBLE

v. a. To hide under false appearance; to conceal; to pretend that not to be which really is. To pretend that to be which is not.

9) FIRE

n. s. Anything provoking; anything that inflames the passions. Ardour of temper; violence of passion. Liveliness of imagination; vigour of fancy; intellectual activity; force of expression; spirit of sentiment. The passion of love.

10) FLAME

n. s. Ardour of inclination. Passion of love.

11) TO FORBEAR

v. n. To cease from anything; to intermit. To pause; to delay. To omit voluntarily; not to do; to abstain. To refrain from any violence of temper; to be patient.

12) GALLANT

n. s. A gay, sprightly, airy, splendid man. A whoremaster, who caresses women to debauch them. A wooer; one who courts a woman for marriage.

13) GALLANT

adj. Gay; well-dressed; showy; splendid; magnificent. Brave; high-spirited; daring; magnanimous. Fine; noble; specious. Inclined to courtship.

14) TO OGLE

v. a. To view with side glances, as in fondness or with a design not to be heeded.

15) TO PRAY

v. n. To entreat; to ask submissively. v. a. To supplicate; to implore; to address with submissive petitions. To ask for as a suppliant.

16) PRAYER

n. s. Mode of petition. Practice of supplication. Entreaty; submissive importunity.

17) TO SALUTE

v. a. To greet; to hail. To please; to gratify. To kiss.

18) SUIT

n. s. A petition; an address of entreaty. Courtship. Pursuit.

19) TO WOO

v. a. To court; to sue for love. To court solicitously; to invite with importunity. v. n. To court; to make love.

20) TO YIELD

v. n. To give up the contest; to submit. To comply with any person or motive power. To comply with things required or enforced. To concede; to admit; to allow; not to deny. To give place as an inferior in excellence or any other quality.

Now, that’s a fairly rich armoury of, more or less, potent amorous terms one doesn’t ordinarily hear today.

So, be inspired!

Let this rare little stash of terms inspire greater COLOUR, FLAIR, and CONCEPTUAL SCOPE to your seductive thoughts, words, and deeds … and thus your powers of enchantment.

Now, can you feel yourself transcending, at least just a little, beyond the parochial limits of your socio-cultural place in time and space?

Well, transcend a little further then, and become a more transcendent lover, with the unprecedented Word of Venus editions of the immortal poet Ovid’s timeless and time-tested amorous art.

Simply visit wordofvenus.com to get your copies today.