light-o'-love

plural lights-o'-love · alternative light o' love · alternative light of love · alternative light-of-love

1. An old dance tune, whose name made it a proverbial expression of levity, especially in love matters.

   Best sing it to the tune of light o' love.

   c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

2. Someone who is inconstant in love; a flirt.First known use 16th c.

   You light-o'-love, a word or two.

   1626 February 13 (licensing date; Gregorian calendar), Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Noble Gentleman”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

3. A promiscuous woman; a prostitute; a mistress or female lover.First known use 16th c.

   He had still another turn with a light-o'-love.

   1915, DH Lawrence, The Rainbow, Vintage, published 2011, page 18

   3 more examples

   Thus they fared, one after another, as the light-o'-love dame introduced them into her chamber, so that no one ventured to come near her.

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth

   That is why a priest's light-o'-love is always some honest man's wife.

   1866, Various, The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866, page 618

   Even the allwisest Stagyrite was bitted, bridled and mounted by a light of love.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 15: Circe]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 411