love

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See also Love, løve, lőve, and lové

Contents

English [edit]

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Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

From Middle English love, luve, from Old English lufu (“love, affection, desire”), from Proto-Germanic *lubō (“love”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ-, *leubʰ- (“love, care, desire”). Cognate with Old Frisian luve (“love”), Old High German luba (“love”). Related to Old English lēof (“dear, beloved”), līefan (“to allow, approve of”), Latin libet, lubō (“to please”) and Albanian lyp (“to beg, ask insistently”), lips (“to be demanded, needed”), Serbo-Croatian ljubiti, ljubav, Russian любовь, любить.

The closing-of-a-letter sense is presumably a truncation of With love or the like.

Noun [edit]

love (countable and uncountable; plural loves)

  1. (uncountable) An intense feeling of affection and care towards another person.
    A mother’s love is not easily shaken.
  2. (uncountable) A deep or abiding liking for something.
    My love of cricket knows no bounds.
  3. (uncountable) A profound and caring attraction towards someone.
    Your love is the most important thing in my life.
  4. (countable) The object of one’s romantic feelings; a darling or sweetheart.
    I met my love by the gasworks wall.
  5. (colloquial) A term of friendly address, regardless of feelings.
    Hello, love, how can I help you?
  6. (euphemistic) A sexual desire; sexual activity.
    She give me love and I feel alright - Tommy James and the Shondells, Mony Mony, 1968
  7. Used as the closing, before the signature, of a letter, especially between good friends or family members, or by the young.
Synonyms [edit]
Antonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
strong affection
romantic feelings
darling or sweetheart
closing of a letter
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2 [edit]

From Middle English loven, lovien, from Old English lufian (“to love, cherish, sow love to; fondle, caress; delight in, approve, practice”), from the noun lufu (“love”). See above. Compare West Frisian leavje (“to love”), German lieben (“to love”).

Verb [edit]

love (third-person singular simple present loves, present participle loving, simple past and past participle loved)

  1. (transitive) To have a strong affection for.
    I love my spouse.
    I love you.
    • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter VI
      "I know how difficult your position is," I said; "but don't feel that you are alone. There is--is one here who--who would do anything in the world for you," I ended lamely. She did not withdraw her hand, and she looked up into my face with tears on her cheeks and I read in her eyes the thanks her lips could not voice. Then she looked away across the weird moonlit landscape and sighed. Evidently her new-found philosophy had tumbled about her ears, for she was seemingly taking herself seriously. I wanted to take her in my arms and tell her how I loved her, and had taken her hand from the rail and started to draw her toward me when Olson came blundering up on deck with his bedding.
  2. (transitive) To need, thrive on.
    Mold loves moist, dark places.
  3. (transitive, colloquial) To be strongly inclined towards something; an emphatic form of like.
    I love walking barefoot on wet grass.
    I'd love to join the team.
    I love what you've done with your hair.
  4. (transitive) To care deeply about, to be dedicated to.
    "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. " (John 3:16)
    "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and your whole mind, and your whole soul; you shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matt. 22:37-38)
  5. (transitive) To derive delight from a fact or situation.
    I love the fact that the coffee shop now offers fat-free chai latte.
  6. (transitive) To lust for.
  7. (transitive, euphemistic) To have sex with, (perhaps from make love.)
    I wish I could love her all night long.
Antonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
have a strong affection for
to need, thrive on
be strongly inclined towards doing
care about; will good for
to lust for
(euphemistic): to have sex with
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
Derived terms [edit]
Terms derived from the noun or verb love
Related terms [edit]

See also [edit]

Etymology 3 [edit]

From Middle English loven, lovien, from Old English lofian (“to praise, exalt, appraise, value”), from Proto-Germanic *lubōną (“to praise, vow”), from *lubą (“praise”), from Proto-Indo-European *leubʰ- (“to like, love, desire”), *lewbʰ-. Cognate with Scots love, lofe (“to praise, honour, esteem”), Dutch loven (“to praise”), German loben (“to praise”), Swedish lova (“to promise, pledge”), Icelandic lofa (“to promise”). See also lofe.

Verb [edit]

love (third-person singular simple present loves, present participle loving, simple past and past participle loved)

  1. (transitive, obsolete or UK dialectal) To praise; commend.
  2. (transitive, obsolete or UK dialectal) To praise as of value; prize; set a price on.

Etymology 4 [edit]

From the phrase Neither for love nor for money, meaning "nothing".

The previously held belief that it originated from the French term l’œuf (“the egg”), due to its shape, is no longer widely accepted.

Noun [edit]

love (uncountable)

  1. (racquet sports) Zero, no score.
    So that’s fifteen-love to Kournikova.
Translations [edit]
zero

Statistics [edit]

Anagrams [edit]

Czech [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

  • IPA: /lɔvɛ/

Noun [edit]

love pl

  1. (slang) money

Danish [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

See lov

Pronunciation [edit]

  • IPA: /lɔːvə/, [ˈlɔːwə]

Noun [edit]

love c

  1. plural indefinite of lov

Etymology 2 [edit]

From Middle Low German lōve.

Pronunciation [edit]

  • IPA: /lɔːvə/, [ˈlɔːwə]

Noun [edit]

love c

  1. trust, faith
Related terms [edit]

Etymology 3 [edit]

From Old Norse lofa.

Pronunciation [edit]

  • IPA: /lɔːvə/, [ˈlɔːwə]

Verb [edit]

love (imperative lov, infinitive at love, present tense lover, past tense lovede, past participle har lovet)

  1. praise
  2. promise

Dutch [edit]

Verb [edit]

love

  1. singular present subjunctive of loven

Anagrams [edit]

French [edit]

Verb [edit]

love

  1. first-person singular present indicative of lover
  2. third-person singular present indicative of lover
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of lover
  4. first-person singular present subjunctive of lover
  5. second-person singular imperative of lover

Anagrams [edit]

Middle English [edit]

Noun [edit]

love (plural loves)

  1. love

Norwegian [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Old Norse lofa

Verb [edit]

love

  1. to praise
  2. to promise

Romani [edit]

Noun [edit]

love

  1. Plural form of lovo
  2. money

Descendants [edit]

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