Word: love Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English love, luve, from Old English lufu, from Proto-West Germanic *lubu, from Proto-Germanic *lubō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“love, care, desire”). The close of a letter sense is presumably a truncation of With love or the like. The verb is from Middle English loven, luvien, from Old English lufian (“to love”), from Proto-West Germanic *lubōn (“to love”), derived from the noun. Eclipsed non-native English amour (“love”), borrowed from Norman amour (“love”). Cognates Cognate with Scots luve (“love”), Saterland Frisian ljo, ljoo, ljoof (“dear, sweet”), Ljoote, Ljoowe (“love”), West Frisian leaf (“friendly, kind, cordial”), leafde (“love”), Dutch lief (“lovely, nice, sweet”), liefde (“love”), German lieb (“dear; lovable”), Liebe (“love”), German Low German Leevde, Lieve (“love”), Luxembourgish léif (“lovely, kind, nice, sweet”), Léift (“love”), Vilamovian łiwa (“love”), Yiddish ליב (lib, “nice; kind”), Icelandic ljúfur (“beloved, dear”), Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish ljuv (“lovely, sweet”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍆𐍃 (liufs, “beloved, dear”), Albanian lyp (“to beg”), Russian любовь (ljubovʹ, “love”), Lithuanian liaupsė (“praise”), Latin libido (“desire, lust”), Polish lubić (“to like”), Persian آلفتن (âloftan, “to enamor”), Sanskrit लोभ (lobha, “desire, greed”). Pronunciation: /ˈlʌv/, [ˈlʌv], /ˈlɐv/, [ˈlä̝v] ~ [ˈlɐ̞v], /ˈlʊv/ 1. A deep caring for the existence of another. Labels: uncountable 2. Strong affection. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: A mother’s love is not easily shaken. Example: My husband’s love is the most important thing in my life. 3. Strong affection. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The love of your neighbor as yourself, is expressly given as the definition and test of Charity,—not alms-giving—and this love is … the highest of all the Divine commands[.] Example: Through nonviolent resistance we shall be able to oppose the unjust system and at the same time love the perpetrators of the system. We must work passionately and unrelentingly for full stature as citizens, but may it never be said, my friends, that to gain it we used the inferior methods of falsehood, malice, hate, and violence. 4. Strong affection. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: I have never been in love as much as I have with you. Example: Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd. 5. Strong affection. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: My love of cricket knows no bounds. Example: For three decades, the average number of miles driven by US motorists increased steadily. Then, in 2007, that steady climb was suddenly halted. [...] What magic caused Americans to temper their longstanding love of the open road? 6. A person who is the object of romantic feelings; a darling, a sweetheart, a beloved. Labels: countable Example: Open the temple gates unto my love. Example: O love, dispatch all business, and be gone! 7. A term of friendly address, regardless of feelings. Labels: Commonwealth, colloquial, countable, uncountable Example: Hello love, how can I help you? 8. A thing, activity, etc. which is the object of one's deep liking or enthusiasm. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: But it wasn't until [Theresa M. Claiborne] went to ROTC training camp at the University of California at Berkeley that she discovered that flying was her first love. "Pilots talk about getting bit by the flying bug," she says. "I thought, This is heaven." 9. Sexual desire; attachment based on sexual attraction. Labels: countable, euphemistic, uncountable Example: The prospect that their cherished Greeks would have countenanced, much less honored, a love between men that expressed itself carnally, however, was not so easily assimilated. 10. Sexual activity. Labels: countable, euphemistic, uncountable Example: —What think you, my lord, of... love? —You mean ‘rumpy-pumpy’. 11. An instance or episode of being in love; a love affair. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Maybe it was just a summer love, something with no future. 12. Used as the closing, before the signature, of a letter, especially between good friends or family members, or by the young. Labels: countable, uncountable 13. Alternative letter-case form of Love (“personification of love”). Labels: alt-of, countable, uncountable Example: At busy hearts in vain love's arrows fly; … 14. A thin silk material. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: Such a kind of transparency, as that of a Sive, a piece of Cyprus, or a Love-Hood. 15. A climbing plant, Clematis vitalba. Labels: countable, uncountable 16. Charity. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable