Valentine's Day: The Origins of "Love"

The singletons among us are not going to like today's post as it's all about love, or lurve as the late Barry White would call it.

The English word love came from the Proto-Germanic lubo which shares its roots with German word liebe. The amour in French, amore in Italian and amor in both Spanish and Portuguese all came from either amorem or amor in Latin.

If you don't have someone to share the day with,
it just means all the more chocolate for you!

The English word amorous, of course, has its roots in the identically spelled old French word that later became amoureux, which itself came from the late Latin amorosum. If you are feeling a little amorous, perhaps you should check out the world's sexiest accents to get your motor running.

Many of the words for love in the past have shared connotations with emotional love as well as the more primal and entertaining carnal love. Sex, however, initially came from the Latin sexus which literally meant "the state of being either male or female". Given that the word intercourse isn't particularly sexy, it tends to be dropped from sexual intercourse and shortened to leave us with just sex.

If you are lonely this Valentine's Day, it may be worth noting that some time ago we actually showed you how register and the formality of language can help you find love, at least in the carnal sense. Happy Valentine's Day!