Relationship
What does Metamour mean?
Your partner’s partner: the other love in the network, who is not yours.
Definition
Metamour joins meta and amour: the person who loves the person you love, in an arrangement with more than one bond. Monogamous vocabulary only knew rival.
Kitchen table is the style in which metamours meet, sometimes eat together. Parallel poly is the style in which they almost never cross. ENM glossaries in the 2000s made the noun technical.
Compersion is the taste, when it shows up, of seeing the other happy in another bond.
Origin
The name joins English meta and amour: the love after the love, your partner’s partner. ENM and polyamory glossaries in the 2000s (More Than Two and neighbouring lists) fixed the technical noun. Kitchen table is the style in which metamours meet; parallel poly, the style in which they almost never cross.
History
From poly glossaries the term moved into everyday network speech. Compersion is the taste, when it shows up, of seeing the other happy in another bond. Monogamous vocabulary only knew rival; metamour names the person without demanding friendship.
How it emerged
The network needed a noun for a partner’s partner. Meta + amour plated it; kitchen table and parallel became the two ways of sharing space.
Usage examples
My metamour travelled with her this weekend.
I don’t have to like my metamour; I do have to stop pretending they don’t exist.
Translations
- pt metamour
- en metamour
- es metamour
Synonyms
- partner’s partner
- kitchen table
- parallel poly