enamored — an adjective meaning that you are “in love” with someone or something or charmed/captivated by someone or something
enamorado/enamorada — the masculine and feminine Spanish adjectives that mean “in love”
In honor of today being Valentine’s Day, I thought it fitting that my post be about loooove. Are you “enamored” of anyone or anything special? Hopefully, you’re becoming a bit more enamored of words thanks to me.
The word “enamored” doesn’t come up a lot in English, at least in the U.S. It kind of sounds highbrow or like a word you’d read in an older piece of literature, but one of my readers recently used it in a comment about this newsletter, so kudos to her for helping to keep the word alive here.
In Spanish, on the other hand, “enamorado” is a very common word. When I would teach the word to my students, they often had a hard time remembering it, and they usually had no interest in learning the cognate of “enamored” to help them, so I used a different approach. Literally, the word breaks down to “in love” when you know that the word “en” means “in” and the word “amor” means “love.”
Many people are familiar with the Italian word for “love” —“amore” — from the famous Dean Martin song “That’s Amore.” “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.” I’m no Dean Martin. I’d usually play his version for my students because it’s quite catchy, and then they’d easily remember the word “amore” and could equate that with “amor” and then with “enamorado.” Naturally, it’s much easier if you already know the word “enamored.”
You can see the same combination of “en” and “amor” in the word “enamored.” It and its Spanish cognate go back to the Latin word for love, which is also amor. They come to us, though, via French, which is regarded by people worldwide as the “language of love.” Ooh la la.
Now, go find whomever you are enamored of, and give him or her a big old kiss. Say “I’m so enamored of you” in your sexiest voice and enjoy the rest of your Valentine’s Day. You can thank me later.
Until next time.
Tammy Marshall (a.k.a. Cupid for today)
Enamored