I don't understand the word "love".
"Love" is made up of four letters. L, O, V, and E. Do these letters carry a deeper meaning than the rest of the alphabet? Are they in some way special? Or are they just coincidence - four letters chosen by somebody at some point in history and given the responsibility of denoting the most powerful and important force in the universe?
Except gravity, of course. Life would be pretty difficult without gravity. Perhaps where love makes us more lighthearted, gravity's effect is to counter that by making us heavy-bodied; perhaps gravity is love's counterpart, the one that always manages to bring us tumbling back to Earth again. Perhaps by being in love or by loving somebody, we are defying gravity.
Why, when these seemingly insignificant individual letters are bound together, do we get a word that supposedly represents the strongest of feelings - romantic or platonic? What gives this word the authority to describe such a thing? And who decided what "love" should be called? Who coined "love"? Who invented love?
Give it some thought. You'll end up just asconfused pleasantly mystified as I am.
Molly x
In case you were curious about the identity of the 'somebody at some point in history', I took the liberty of looking it up on http://www.etymonline.com/ so that I could inform you all.
Old English lufu "love, affection, friendliness,". *Lubo (cf. O.Fris. liaf, Ger. lieb, Goth. liufs "dear, beloved;" not found elsewhere as a noun, except O.H.G. luba, Ger. Liebe), from PIE *leubh- "to care, desire, love". Meaning "a beloved person" is from early 13c. The sense "no score" (in tennis, etc.) is 1742, from the notion of "playing for love," i.e. "for nothing" (1670s). Love-letter is attested from mid-13c.; love-song from early 14c. To be in love with (someone) is from c.1500. Love life "one's collective amorous activities" is from 1919, originally a term in psychological jargon. Love affair is from 1590s. Phrase for love or money "for anything" is attested from 1580s. To fall in love is attested from early 15c. The phrase no love lost (between two people) is ambiguous and was used 17c. in ref. to two who love each other well (c.1640) as well as two who have no love for each other (1620s).
Don't you just feel love, affection or friendliness for me for doing that for you?
"Love" is made up of four letters. L, O, V, and E. Do these letters carry a deeper meaning than the rest of the alphabet? Are they in some way special? Or are they just coincidence - four letters chosen by somebody at some point in history and given the responsibility of denoting the most powerful and important force in the universe?
Except gravity, of course. Life would be pretty difficult without gravity. Perhaps where love makes us more lighthearted, gravity's effect is to counter that by making us heavy-bodied; perhaps gravity is love's counterpart, the one that always manages to bring us tumbling back to Earth again. Perhaps by being in love or by loving somebody, we are defying gravity.
Why, when these seemingly insignificant individual letters are bound together, do we get a word that supposedly represents the strongest of feelings - romantic or platonic? What gives this word the authority to describe such a thing? And who decided what "love" should be called? Who coined "love"? Who invented love?
Give it some thought. You'll end up just as
Molly x
In case you were curious about the identity of the 'somebody at some point in history', I took the liberty of looking it up on http://www.etymonline.com/ so that I could inform you all.
Old English lufu "love, affection, friendliness,". *Lubo (cf. O.Fris. liaf, Ger. lieb, Goth. liufs "dear, beloved;" not found elsewhere as a noun, except O.H.G. luba, Ger. Liebe), from PIE *leubh- "to care, desire, love". Meaning "a beloved person" is from early 13c. The sense "no score" (in tennis, etc.) is 1742, from the notion of "playing for love," i.e. "for nothing" (1670s). Love-letter is attested from mid-13c.; love-song from early 14c. To be in love with (someone) is from c.1500. Love life "one's collective amorous activities" is from 1919, originally a term in psychological jargon. Love affair is from 1590s. Phrase for love or money "for anything" is attested from 1580s. To fall in love is attested from early 15c. The phrase no love lost (between two people) is ambiguous and was used 17c. in ref. to two who love each other well (c.1640) as well as two who have no love for each other (1620s).
Don't you just feel love, affection or friendliness for me for doing that for you?
3 comments:
Maybe love is just a word, but to be frank all words are... just words.
It's the meaning we give it, just like we give material things in our lives value, the same goes for words.
And as we know there are many types of love and even if we are living in the same world we perceive it differently. That's the beauty of life.
Love can be an all consuming emotion, but it can also be silent and sweet.
My love runs like a deep river inside of me. Seemingly quiet but underneath it's beautiful surface, wild streams are at bay...
Life is beautiful and ugly because of love, because of the things we are willing to do for love. Or maybe even from lack of love,
When I think of love I can't help to link it with compassion.
I have love in my life and I'm truly lucky to have come by it in such a "strange" form.
Maybe those four letters seem small even insignificant, but nonetheless I'll end this long comment with the same for letters...
Molly E. T. I love you and sweetness I always will.
Yes love is just a word, but my point was what gives a word its meaning? How do we associate it and why do we associate it and what do we associate it with? How does a word gain its meaning?
You're right, there are many types of love and I agree with you that it can be perceived differently. What can be beautiful for two people could be the cause of pain and anger and jealousy for another - love is inclusive, yet exclusive. Maybe what we have is not exactly love - though obviously there is no specific word for friendship love (hey! A lexical gap!) - maybe we just call it love because it's the only thing we know to call it. Maybe we're just finding a convenient word instead of trying to work out what it really is.
Nonetheless, no matter what this is, it's definitely unbreakable and I'm so glad to have found such an unusual form of love (or indeed "love").
(And I see you found the pretentious writer in you. I told you she was in there somewhere!)
All you need is love xD
Post a Comment