love

(uncountable) A deep caring for the existence of another.

A mother’s love is not easily shaken.

My husband’s love is the most important thing in my life.

He on his side / Leaning half-raised, with looks of cordial love / Hung over her enamoured.

2014, S. Hidden, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Mystical Perspectives on the Love of God, →ISBN:

A profound and caring affection towards someone.

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[.]

1864, Utilitarianism Explained and Exemplified in Moral and Political Government

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.

1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart”, in Strength to Love, New York: Pocket Books, published 1964, →OCLC, page 7:

Affectionate, benevolent concern or care for other people or beings, and for their well-being.

I have never been in love as much as I have with you.

Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.

1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act III, page 39:

The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

A feeling of intense attraction towards someone.

My love of cricket knows no bounds.

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?

2012, Philip Auerswald, The Coming Prosperity, →ISBN:

A deep or abiding liking for something; an enthusiasm for something.

Open the temple gates unto my love.

O love, dispatch all business, and be gone!

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

'Oh, my love, my love!' she murmured, 'wilt thou ever know how I have loved thee?' and she kissed him on the forehead, and then went and stood in the pathway of the flame of Life.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

I met my love by the gasworks wall.

(countable) A person who is the object of romantic feelings; a darling, a sweetheart, a beloved.

Hello love, how can I help you?

(colloquial, Commonwealth) A term of friendly address, regardless of feelings.

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."

1997 March, “Faces of Today's Black Woman”, in Ebony, volume 52, number 5, page 96:

A thing, activity, etc. which is the object of one's deep liking or enthusiasm.

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.

2013, Ronald Long, Men, Homosexuality, and the Gods, Routledge, →ISBN, page 3:

(euphemistic) Sexual desire; attachment based on sexual attraction.

—What think you, my lord, of... love?
—You mean ‘rumpy-pumpy’.

1986, Ben Elton et al., “Bells”, in Blackadder II:

Maybe it was just a summer love, something with no future.

2014, E. L. Todd, Then Came Absolution, →ISBN:

An instance or episode of being in love; a love affair.

Used as the closing, before the signature, of a letter, especially between good friends or family members, or by the young.

At busy hearts in vain love's arrows fly; …

c. 1810, Samuel Johnson (in The Works of Samuel Johnson)

Alternative letter-case form of Love (“personification of love”).

Such a kind of transparency, as that of a Sive, a piece of Cyprus, or a Love-Hood.

1664, Robert Boyle, Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours, […] :

Clematis vitalba
Clematis vitalba#Translingual

The process of supporting all conscious beings in living the way they desire to live, without intentional harm, abuse, neglect, deprivation, indifference, negativity or greed expressed towards anyone, including the self.

en-noun

love (countable and uncountable, plural loves)

loves (plural)
loue (alternative)
luv (alternative)

шӏу лъэгъун

šʷʼu lˢɛğʷun

dashur (i/e)

object of one's romantic feelings; darling or sweetheart

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 include Russian любовь (ljubovʹ), Latin libido (“desire, lust”), Polish lubić and Sanskrit लोभ (lobha, “desire, greed”).


love

I love my spouse. I love you! I love that song!

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.

1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VI, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

Just give me a reason, / just a little bit's enough, / just a second we're not broken, just bent / and we can learn to love again.

2013 February 26, Pink, Nate Ruess, Just Give Me a Reason:

(usually transitive, sometimes intransitive, stative) To have a strong affection for (someone or something).

Mold loves moist, dark places.

I love walking barefoot on wet grass; I'd love to join the team; I love what you've done with your hair

"I love not that underlings should perceive my wisdom."

(transitive) To be strongly inclined towards something; an emphatic form of like.

For God so loued þe world, that he gaue his only begotten Sonne: that whosoeuer beleeueth in him, should not perish, but haue euerlasting life.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 3:16:

Iesus sayd vnto him, Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soule, and with all thy minde. This is the first and great Commandement. And the second is like vnto it, Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 22:37–39:

(usually transitive, sometimes intransitive) To seek the good or honor of (someone), care deeply about, to be dedicated to (someone or something).

I love the fact that the coffee shop now offers fat-free chai latte.

(transitive, sometimes ironic) To derive delight from a fact or situation.

She loved my photos of the kids playing with the dogs.

I wish I could love her all night long.

(transitive, euphemistic) To have sex with (perhaps from make love).

en-verb

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

loves (present singular third-person)
loving (participle present)
loved (participle past)
loved (past)
love (infinitive)
loue (alternative)
luv (alternative)

the course of true love never did run smooth

the love of money is the root of all evil

Sranan Tongo: lobi

Aukan: lobi

Saramaccan: lóbi

amar (usually implying romantic love or the love between close relatives; when referring to things (as in “I love pizza”, “eu amo pizza”), it indicates a stronger liking than that expressed by adorar)


love

So that’s fifteen-love to Kournikova.

The next day Agassi came back from two sets to love down to beat Courier in five sets.

2013, Paul McNamee, Game Changer: My Tennis Life:

(racquet sports, billiards) Zero, no score.

I fought the white man for less than sixpence. I fought him for love, which is nothing at all.

1916, H. Rider Haggard, The Ivory Child:

Now widely believed (due to historical written record) to be from the idea that when one does a thing “for love” it is for no monetary gain, the word “love” thus implying "nothing".
The former assumption that it had originated from French l’œuf (literally “the egg”), due to its shape, has largely been discredited and is no longer widely accepted. However, the apparent similarity of the shape of an egg to a zero has inspired similar analogies, such as the use of duck (reputed to be short for duck's egg) for a zero score at cricket, and goose egg for "zero".


love

Alternative form of lofe (“to praise, sell”)

loves (present singular third-person)
loving (participle present)
loved (participle past)
loved (past)
loue (alternative)
luv (alternative)