Etymology From Old French romanceour. By surface analysis, romance + -er.
1
One who romances another; one who attempt to win another's affections via romance.
Once I used to believe I was such a great romancer / then I came home to a woman that I did not recognize.1977, “The Stranger”, in Billy Joel (music), The Stranger:
2
Dated A person who writes romance or adventure stories, especially stories relating to chivalry, knights, heroes, quests, etc.
[W]hat was once taught by sages, and believed by monarchs, has shared the fate of everything human and has sunk from its pristine rank to become the material and the machinery of poets and romancers.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 26:
No nightmare dreamed by man, no wild invention of the romancer, can ever equal the living horror of that place, and the weird crying of those voices of the night, as we clung like shipwrecked mariners to a raft, and tossed on the black, unfathomed wilderness of air.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
1 more example
That’s a good reminder of how they won the referendum: these cavalier romancers trounced the roundhead number-cruncher remainers. Surely the country wouldn’t be fooled by the same trick twice.2025 December 9, Polly Toynbee, “Come with me to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s house. The Brexiters are rattled – and it shows”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
romancer
noun
Etymology From romance + -er (“Variety -er”).
1
Economics, Entertainment, Entertainment industry, Lifestyle, Sciences A romantic film or television show.
Barbara Cartland scratched out this trusty 19th-century romancer concerning the scrumptious Serena Staverly (Diana Rigg), who has the dreadful misfortune to be lost in a game of cards to the flint-hearted Lord Justin.1989 March 6, The Sydney Morning Herald, page 8S, column 1: