monday's word: love

michelangelo caravaggio, amor vincit omnia, ca. 1601

luv

unlike other languages, english uses one word to cover many senses of love—familial love, patriotic love, philosophical love, romantic love, sexual love, spiritual love—as well as, for instance, love of money or love of horseback riding.

--intense attraction, desire for oneness with another or others

--seeking the well-being of another, of others, or of all beings

--a deliberate choice to relinquish part of one’s self-esteem for the benefit of another (or others or all)

--the opposite of hate or apathy, a stronger form of liking or a higher form of tolerance

--a synonym for god

--abstraction, idealization, or mythologizing of the animal appetite or lust for someone or something

people disagree whether love is an ability, an action, a condition, a feeling, a force, an illness, an instinct or drive, a social contract, a spiritual gift, a state of altered consciousness, or a combination of some or all of these … or something else entirely.

old english ‘lufu’ – ‘love, affection, friendliness’ – from proto-germanic ‘lubo’—‘dear, beloved’ – from proto-indo-european ‘leubh-‘—‘to care, desire, love’

synonyms: adoration, affection, affinity, agape, altruism, amor, amour, attraction, bonding, caring, commitment, crush, cupid, desire, devotion, eros, fondness, friendliness, heart, infatuation, intimacy, karma, love sickness, lust, metta, narcissism, needing, passion, philia, romance, sympathy, uniting, wuv

‘what you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons.’
--don draper on mad men, amc, 2007