leman
/ˈlɛmən/
leman noun: one beloved; a lover, a sweetheart of either sex (especially a secret lover; a gallant or mistress).
Noun
leman (plural lemans)
- One beloved; a lover, a sweetheart of either sex (especially a secret lover; a gallant or mistress).
- Faire Venus seemde vnto his bed to bring
Her, whom he waking euermore did weene,
To be the chastest flowre, that ay did spring
On earthly braunch, the daughter of a king,
Now a loose Leman to vile seruice bound[…].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC - The prisoner I speak of is better booty—a jolly monk riding to visit his leman, an I may judge by his horse-gear and wearing apparel.1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter II, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 61
- Faire Venus seemde vnto his bed to bring
- A paramour.
- '...They are lost, I tell thee, they are lost. For them there is no heaven nor hell, and in neither shall they praise God’s name.’
‘Father,’ cried the young Fisherman, ‘thou knowest not what thou sayest. Once in my net I snared the daughter of a King. She is fairer than the morning star, and whiter...1915, Oscar Wilde, A House of Pomegranates: The Fisherman and his Soul - And he sent the news to William the Lyon, sitting drinking the wine and fondling his bonny lemans in Edinburgh Town, and William made him the Knight of Kinraddie[…].1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song
- '...They are lost, I tell thee, they are lost. For them there is no heaven nor hell, and in neither shall they praise God’s name.’
Proper noun capitalized: Leman
Leman (plural Lemans)
- A surname.
Forms of leman
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | lemans |
| alternative form | leaman |
| alternative form | lemman |
| alternative form | lemon |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Lemans |
| alternative form | Lemans |
| alternative form | Lemman |
| alternative form | Leeman |
| alternative form | Leaman |
| alternative form | Letman |
| alternative form | Leemen |
| alternative form | Leamen |
| alternative form | Lemon |
| alternative form | Lemmon |
| alternative form | Leemon |
| alternative form | Limon |
Origin of leman
From Middle English lemman, variant of leofman, from Old English *lēofmann ("lover; sweetheart"; attested as a personal name), equivalent to lief + man ("beloved person"). In the past, incorrectly asserted to derive from French l'aimant (“the [male] lover”).
From Middle English Leman, from Old English Leofmann.
Words formed from leman
Words that rhyme with leman
Questions about leman
- What does leman mean?
- Leman means one beloved; a lover, a sweetheart of either sex (especially a secret lover; a gallant or mistress).
- What part of speech is leman?
- Leman can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce leman?
- Leman is pronounced /ˈlɛmən/.
- What is the plural of leman?
- The plural of leman is lemans.
Words near leman in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: leman (page history and authors); Leman (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-lemon.ogg.
Cite this entry: “leman.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leman. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.