What does "lover of ladies" mean?

What does it mean? A playboy? Like a womanizer?

I was watching a video on YouTube where a British man said "he's a lover of ladies" but then goes on to say "he's a very nice guy" and now I'm confused.

He's not a teenager. He's almost 30.

Is it a player, cheater, womanizer, etc.? If not, then what is it?

If "lover of ladies" means a cheater then he won't be calling him a "very nice guy" but I've searched everywhere and didn't find anything to suggest what the meaning is.

This is an old reading but the question still stands. Even if not in a palm reading but if someone uses this phrase, am I supposed to use the pejorative sense?

The link for reference: https://youtu.be/aXjPUqsmSrs


The general phrasing X-er of Ys is generative in English. The form crops up in many contexts to artfully describe a quality that could be explained more plainly. Sometimes the phrasing elevates or mystifies; other times, it pokes fun:

  • player of games (title of novel, title of song)
  • slayer of beasts (academic epithet for hunter, game achievement)
  • teller of secrets (title of novel, crossword clue)
  • bearer of bad news (idiom)
  • picker of locks (character self-description, website name)

Lover of ladies can be placed in the same group. For instance, it can be used to artfully describe someone who is popular with the ladies and treats them well, without any pejorative sense:

In all of these works, waving, abundant hair that moves belongs to idealized characters, those possessing virtue, purity, elite status, and bravery - [...] the man (or angel) who is a heroic adventurer, a lover of ladies, or a prince. (Edith Snook, "Beautiful Hair, health, and Privilege in Early Modern England," Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Vol. 15, No. 4, Fall 2015, p. 26)

Such a phrase can also be used to suggest licentious promiscuity specifically, but ideally the context would make this usage clear based on context. For instance, this blurb from a comic book preview definitely suggests promiscuity (through the trope of the super spy, not to mention pairing "lover of ladies" with "man-slut"), though whether this is pejorative or merely descriptive may be left to the reader:

Jack Steele: World renowned agent of OLYMPUS, super-spy, debonair, lover of ladies, man-slut. (Multiversity Comics review of The Illegitimates #1, quoting the blurb)

All that said, a palm reading can deliberately omit clarifying the statement, leaving it up to the person receiving the reading whether he is a lover of ladies in a positive or negative way.


He knows it is considered a pejorative because he follows it "I or he's a nice guy". He is defending himself against the common view of the phase. That is understood in this context. He is a womanizer and all that but does not consider himself so bad after all. Holding onto the idea of himself as a "very nice guy" in spite of his admission is the point of the exchange. This is what brings the feeling of a contradiction when it is just his twisted opinion.