Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The Question at Lunch: Haremour

The Question at Lunch was: what to call Paul Wolfowitz’s cookie. Okay, cookie is not right, but what is? “Principal squeeze” sounds down-market. “Lover” has too much perfume. “Partner” and “companion” fit some relationships but perhaps not this one. Someone suggested “paramour,” which may have to do—but in the clutter of the moment, I heard it as

Haremour

Now, there is a word that deserves a place in the language, as in: he doesn’t have just one, he has a whole harem of them. Whether it fits here I do not know. It surely fits someplace, but maybe in this case, we should just settle for “transitional wife.”

Fn: The Online Etymology Dictionary (link) adds:

Originally a term for Christ (by women) or the Virgin Mary (by men)

No, I guess not.

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