Philerast
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A boy who feels philia or more specifically anterōs, for his paederastic lover.
"When in turn they reach man’s estate they love youths themselves[; i]n general terms such people are either paiderasts or philerasts, being always attracted by kindred kind. But when a boy-lover, or any other, chances to meet his own original half, they are both seized with an ecstasy of affection and intimacy and love, and can hardly bear to be separated for as much as a single instant from each other."
Example
More examples"When in turn they reach man’s estate they love youths themselves[; i]n general terms such people are either paiderasts or philerasts, being always attracted by kindred kind. But when a boy-lover, or any other, chances to meet his own original half, they are both seized with an ecstasy of affection and intimacy and love, and can hardly bear to be separated for as much as a single instant from each other."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek φιλεραστής (philerastḗs), from φίλ(ος) (phíl(os), “dear”, “friend”) or φιλ(έω) (phil(éō), “I love”) + ἐραστής (erastḗs, “lover”) (compare the English cognates phil- + erast(es)); φιλεραστής (philerastḗs) was used by Plato in his Symposium as an alternative to ἐρώμενος (erṓmenos, “eromenos”), to imply greater equitability and reciprocity and to avoid the latter term’s denotational passivity.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.