💘 A secret lover 💵 A pimp

fancy man

9.4

A man who is a woman's secret lover, not her husband

noun
/ˈfæn.si mæn/

: amante

Everyone in the village suspected she had a fancy man on the side.

Examples

Your fancy man knows too.

Under Capricorn (1949)
Keep this fireside cozy until your fancy man gets tired of you and pitches you out?

Under Capricorn (1949)
He was known as her fancy man long before the rumors became public.
She left her husband for her fancy man from the city.

Synonyms

beau

vsfancy man

16 7.8

A man who is someone's romantic partner or boyfriend

describes a man's role as a woman's lover outside marriage

swain

vsfancy man

Archaic

4 9.9

A man who loves a woman and tries to win her, often in old poems

describes the modern, ordinary sense rather than poetic phrasing

Surface Forms

fancy man singular

fancy men plural

Morphology

fancy + man

There is no clear compositional link between 'fancy' (ornamented, showy) and the meaning 'pimp'; a B1 learner who knows the constituents would likely interpret 'fancy man' as a stylish or attractive man, not someone who manages or profits from prostitutes. This is a culturally specific, slang/idiomatic occupational sense that cannot be predicted from the parts, so it is opaque.

Etymology

Fancy man may come from the word fancy, which used to mean 'to like'. If a woman 'fancied' a man, he could be called her fancy man, a secret 'lover', and that is why the phrase means a man who is her lover today.