Love—it’s a word that carries more baggage than a bad breakup. But where does it come from, and how did it become the catch-all term for everything from deep friendship to obsessive romance? In this special Valentine’s Day episode of Lexiconned, we dive into the origins of love, tracing it from Old English lufu to Shakespeare’s poetry and beyond. We’ll explore love’s many linguistic forms, its role in history and literature, and some of the strangest love-related idioms in the English language. Plus, we ask the big questions: Why do we fall in love? What did “making love” originally mean? And can one word really capture all the complexities of human emotion? Tune in for a mix of etymology, history, and humor—because love, like language, is never simple.
Sources:
- Etymology of "Love": Etymonline (https://www.etymonline.com/word/love)
- Old English "lufu": Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts
- Greek words for love: The Cambridge Dictionary of Classical Civilization
- Shakespeare's influence on love idioms: Oxford English Dictionary
- Origins of "making love": Historical English linguistics studies
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