Love Language

Happy Valentine's Day or just happy day!

Saturdays are perfect days to explore the most powerful forces in our lives. Surprise, we’re talking about the etymology and terminology of love!

Love is, as they say, a many-splendored thing and one that cynics and romantics alike discuss quite a bit. The meaning of love may be the muse driving generations of poets and artists, but the etymology of love is easier to pin down. We can trace love as a word all the way back to the Proto Indo-European root leubh-, which also forms the Sanskrit lubhyati meaning desires. From this sweet root sprouted terms in many Romantic and Germanic languages, including the Latin libēre, German liebe, Old Norse lubo, and Old English lufu.

Love doesn’t exclusively describe ardor and attraction; often, this is the word we use to express our strongest devotion to family, friends, country, and deity. That said, most English words based on love tend to revolve around romance or the painful lack thereof:

• lovebird (noun) - part of a couple in a visibly affectionate and devoted relationship; also a member of various species of small parrots known for the affectionate behavior of mated birds.

• lovebomb (verb) - to express extremely and often inappropriately high levels of interest, effort, and affection in the beginning of a relationship in a manipulative attempt to gain control

• lovelorn (adj) - sad, hopeless, or lonely because of unrequited or unfulfilled love
  BREAKDOWN: LOVE- (love) + -LORN (lost)

• loveless (adj) - bereft of affection; not feeling or experiencing love

• lovely (adj) - very pleasant, beautiful, or attractive

• lovesick (adj) - marked by a deep longing for romantic affection; languishing from unrequited or unfulfilled love

• lovestruck (adj) - infatuated or smitten

“English is my second language. My first language is love.” –Abhijit Naskar