Male Equivalent
For male mistress, the more general term "lover" can be used, but does not carry the same implications. "Paramour" is sometimes used, but this term can apply to either partner in an illicit relationship, so it is not exclusively male.
In 18th- and 19th-century Venice, the terms cicisbeo and cavalier servente were used to describe a man who was the professed gallant and lover of a married woman. Another word that has been used for a male mistress is gigolo, though this carries connotations of payment and prostitution. In the film titled Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo, it is suggested the word gigolo could also be a female, as if a man being paid for sexual favors is acting like a woman.
Since the late 20th century, the terms "Pool boy," "Fitness trainer" or "Tennis instructor," were each used to designated males in the role, with the implication of lower social status, youth, and physical fitness leading to a financial relationship to the wealthier married woman.
Some use the term adulterer or fornicator to define a male mistress. An adulterer is a married person who has sex with a person other than their legal spouse. A fornicator is an unmarried person who has sex with an unmarried person.
Read more about this topic: Mistress (lover)
Famous quotes containing the words male and/or equivalent:
“No other creative field is as closed to those who are not white and male as is the visual arts. After I decided to be an artist, the first thing that I had to believe was that I, a black woman, could penetrate the art scene, and that, further, I could do so without sacrificing one iota of my blackness or my femaleness or my humanity.”
—Faith Ringgold (b. 1934)
“The notion that one will not survive a particular catastrophe is, in general terms, a comfort since it is equivalent to abolishing the catastrophe.”
—Iris Murdoch (b. 1919)