love

Etymology 1

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 French amour (“love”). Cognates include Russian любовь (ljubovʹ), Polish lubić and Sanskrit लोभ (lobha, “desire, greed”).

noun

1. (uncountable) A deep caring for the existence of another.
2. (uncountable) Strong affection.
   1. A profound and caring affection towards someone.
      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. 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost
      2014, S. Hidden, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Mystical Perspectives on the Love of God, →ISBN:
   2. Affectionate, benevolent concern or care for other people or beings, and for their well-being.
      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
   3. A feeling of intense attraction towards someone.
      I have never been in love as much as I have with you.
   4. A deep or abiding liking for something; an enthusiasm for something.
      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
3. (countable) A person who is the object of romantic feelings; a darling, a sweetheart, a beloved.
   Open the temple gates unto my love. 1595, Edmund Spenser, Epithalamion
   I met my love by the gasworks wall. 1969, The Dubliners, Dirty Old Town
4. (colloquial, Commonwealth) A term of friendly address, regardless of feelings.
   Hello love, how can I help you?
5. A thing, activity, etc. which is the object of one's deep liking or enthusiasm.
   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
6. (euphemistic) Sexual desire; attachment based on sexual attraction.
   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, page 3
7. (euphemistic) Sexual activity.
   —What think you, my lord, of... love? —You mean ‘rumpy-pumpy’. 1986, Ben Elton et al., “Bells”, in Blackadder II
8. An instance or episode of being in love; a love affair.
   Maybe it was just a summer love, something with no future. 2014, E. L. Todd, Then Came Absolution
9. Used as the closing, before the signature, of a letter, especially between good friends or family members, or by the young.
10. Alternative letter-case form of Love (“personification of love”).
    At busy hearts in vain love's arrows fly; … c. 1810, Samuel Johnson (in The Works of Samuel Johnson)
11. (obsolete) A thin silk material.
    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,[…]
12. A climbing plant, Clematis vitalba.

verb

1. (usually transitive, sometimes intransitive, stative) To have a strong affection for (someone or something).
   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. February 26 2013, Pink, Nate Ruess, Just Give Me a Reason
   I love my spouse. I love you! I love that song!
2. (transitive) To need, thrive on.
   Mold loves moist, dark places.
3. (transitive) To be strongly inclined towards something; an emphatic form of like.
   I love walking barefoot on wet grass; I'd love to join the team; I love what you've done with your hair
4. (usually transitive, sometimes intransitive) To care deeply about, to be dedicated to (someone or something).
   For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
   You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and your whole mind, and your whole soul; you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew: 22:37-38
   The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […] offering services that let you […] "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention. 2013-06-21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27
5. (transitive, sometimes ironic) To derive delight from a fact or situation.
   I love the fact that the coffee shop now offers fat-free chai latte.
6. (transitive, euphemistic) To have sex with (perhaps from make love).
   I wish I could love her all night long.

Etymology 2

Now widely believed (due to historical written record) to be from the idea that when one does a thing “for love”, that is for no monetary gain, the word “love” 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. Needless to say, 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".

noun

1. (racquet sports, billiards) Zero, no score.
   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
2. Nothing; no recompense.
   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

Etymology 3

verb

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