Etymograph

English

love

Love comes from Middle English love ‘love’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lewbʰ-‘love’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*lewbʰéh₂reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*lubō‘love’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*lubureconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150lufu
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500love‘love’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1595love

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lewbʰ-‘love’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*lewbʰéh₂reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*lubō‘love’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*lubureconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150lufu
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500love‘love’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1595love

Earliest quotation: 1595, Edmund Spenser: “Open the temple gates unto my love.”

The story

The close of a letter sense is presumably a truncation of With love or the. Eclipsed non-native English amour (‘love’), borrowed from Norman amour (‘love’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- ‘love, care, desire’

left, believe, leave, library, belief, leaf, lib, lodge, lobby, libel, loft, libido, liber, libretto, lob, luft, lief, 17 more

Another origin of love

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lewbʰ-‘to love, care for, desire’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*lubō‘love, affection’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*lubureconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanic, derivedc. 200–500 CE*lubōn‘to love’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150lufian‘to love’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500loven‘to love’
  7. Englishtodaylove

The verb sense is from Middle English loven, luvien, from Old English lufian (‘to love’), from Proto-West Germanic *lubōn (‘to love’), derived from the noun.

Another origin of love

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂ew-‘to enjoy’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂éwis‘bird’uncertain
  3. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂ōwyóm‘egg’reconstructed
  4. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*ōw(j)om‘egg’reconstructed
  5. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*ŏvum‘egg’reconstructed
  6. Vulgar Latin, derivedc. 100–700 CE(*)ŏvum
  7. Old Frenchc. 842–1400oef‘egg’
  8. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600œuf‘egg’
  9. Frenchc. 1600–presentl’œufuncertain
  10. Englishtodaylove

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”. Use of “love” for having no score extends to the 18th century in tennis as well as certain card games. 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".

Today it means

noun A deep caring for the existence of another.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- / love

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