# true love
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English trewe love, from Old English trēow-lufu.

### Noun

true love (countable and uncountable, plural true loves)
* (originally) Faithful love.
** (uncountable) Feelings of love that are adhered to faithfully, or the faithful manifestation of such feelings.
*** 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Loues Labour's loſt, act I, scene ii:
    I shall be forsworn, which is a great argument of falsehood, if I love. And how can that be true love which is falsely attempted? Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love, […]
*** 1875, Sidney Lanier, “The Symphony”:
    When all’s done, what hast thou won Of the only sweet that’s under the sun? Ay, canst thou buy a single sigh Of true love’s least, least ecstasy?
*** 1988, Evelyn Mullay, The Artist at Work: Narrative Technique in Chrétien de Troyes‎, page 88:For both Thomas and Chrétien true love is identified with the ability to be true to one’s commitment, and Fenice is justifiably confident of her ability to be constant.
** (countable) A lover who is faithful to the object of his or her affection or faithfully loved themselves.
*** 1765, “Waly Waly, Love Be Bonny”, as quoted in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets (1905), Thomas Percy (editor):
    I leant my back unto an aik, I thought it was a trusty tree; But first it bow’d, and fyne it brak, Sae my true love did lightly me.
*** c. 1780, unknown author, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, in Mirth Without Mischief:The first day of Christmas My true love sent to me A partridge in a pear tree.
* (by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.
** (uncountable) The form of romantic affection that is considered pure and wholly positive, not just based on feelings of lust and sex.
    Some believe that true love doesn’t exist.
*** 1847, Friedrich von Schlegel, translated by A. J. W. Morrison, The Philosophy of Life, and Philosophy of Language: In a Course of Lectures‎, page 38:And as all true love is reciprocal, so also is true love lasting and indestructible; or, to “speak as a man,” even because it is the very inmost life of humanity, it is, therefore, true unto death.
*** 2006 January 26, Linda Morris, “Pope dedicates message to meaning of true love”, in The Age, Melbourne:The leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics has tried to answer the age-old question of philosophers, playwrights and poets — the meaning of love — and concluded that erotic desire without self-sacrifice and spiritual devotion cannot be true love.
** (countable) The unique individual for whom one feels such affection.
    He was my one true love.
*** 1965, “Colours”, performed by Donovan:Yellow is the colour of my true love’s hair In the morning when we rise.
** (uncountable) The situation in which a couple is perfectly compatible and there is no better relationship, as set by a greater force such as God or fate.
* (countable) A thing for which a person feels an intense love.
    Cinematography is my only true love.

#### Derived terms

* the course of true love never did run smooth
* true-love-knot

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* revolute