philander

English

WOTD – 27 June 2012

Etymology

From the given name Philander, used as a name for flirtatious characters in several 18th century stories, from Ancient Greek Φίλανδρος (Phílandros), name of the mythological son of the nymph Acacallis and the god Apollo. Semantically disconnected from the adjective φίλανδρος (phílandros, “loving one’s husband; excessively attracted to males, slutty, boy crazy”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɪˈlændə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɪˈlændəɹ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: phi‧lan‧der

Noun

philander (plural philanders)

1. A lover.
   • 1700, [William] Congreve, The Way of the World, a Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page number), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     Yes, I'll baste you together, you and your Philander!

2. A South American opossum, bare-tailed woolly opossum, of species Caluromys philander (syn. Didelphis philander).
3. (obsolete) A greater bilby, an Australian marsupial of species Macrotis lagotis (syn. Perameles lagotis).

Related terms

• filander

Translations

lover — see lover

Caluromys philander

• Finnish: philanderinvillapussirotta, venezuelanvillaopossumi

Macrotis lagotis

• Finnish: isopussikaniini, isokorvapusseli
• Swedish: större kaninpunggrävling c

Further reading

• philander on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

philander (third-person singular simple present philanders, present participle philandering, simple past and past participle philandered)

1. (intransitive) To woo women; to play the male flirt.
   • 1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Daniel Deronda, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

     You can't be philandering after her again.

Synonyms

• womanize, womanise

Derived terms

• philanderer, philandering

Translations

To make love to women; to play the male flirt

• Bulgarian: флиртувам (bg) (flirtuvam)
• Estonian: liiderdama
• Hebrew: הִתְפַּרְפֵּר (he) (hitparpér) (slang)
• Portuguese: flirtar
• Russian: флиртовать (ru) (flirtovatʹ)