loverhoodn.
/ˈlʌvəhʊd/, U.S. /ˈləvərˌ(h)ʊd/ The state or condition of being a lover.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > a lover > [noun] > condition of being a lover
lovership1837
loverhood1858
loverliness1879
1858 E. S. Sheppard Rumour III. iv. 126 In what phase of loverhood does courtship consist?
1871 Scribner's Monthly Sept. 473/1 She had forgotten absolutely nothing excepting the loverhood of her lover.
1891 H. Lynch G. Meredith 154 The fluted tenor of romance twangs the guitar of loverhood musically.
1907 Newark (Ohio) Advocate 7 Sept. Dot, with a kiss, had crowned him with loverhood.
1960 G. T. Wright Poet in Poem i. 39 The final couplet retrieves the singer from the manhood, the loverhood, which he has assumed as a mask for the first twelve lines.
1994 J. Barth Once upon Time 52 We toasted twenty years of marriage, twenty-one of loverhood.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1858