pamphlet [LME] The anonymous 12th-century Latin love poem Pamphilus, seu de Amore (‘Pamphilius, or About Love’) was popular in the Middle Ages and was translated into many languages, including English. Its popular name was Pamphilet, which became pamphlet, meaning ‘a short handwritten work of several pages fastened together’, and lived on long after the original poem was forgotten. Pamphlets have been associated with political theories or campaigns since the end of the 16th century.