Meaning
A deep caring for the existence of another.
Etymology
Origin: Old English
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰéh₂ Proto-Germanic *lubō Proto-West Germanic *lubu Old English lufu Middle English love English love 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. Eclipsed non-native English amour (“love”), borrowed from Norman amour (“love”). Cognates Cognate with Scots luve (“love”), Saterland Frisian ljo, ljoo, ljoof (“dear, sweet”), Ljoote, Ljoowe (“love”), West Frisian leaf (“friendly, kind, cordial”), leafde (“love”), Dutch lief (“lovely, nice, sweet”), liefde (“love”), German lieb (“dear; lovable”), Liebe (“love”), German Low German Leevde, Lieve (“love”), Luxembourgish léif (“lovely, kind, nice, sweet”), Léift (“love”), Vilamovian łiwa (“love”), Yiddish ליב (lib, “nice; kind”), Icelandic ljúfur (“beloved, dear”), Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish ljuv (“lovely, sweet”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍆𐍃 (liufs, “beloved, dear”), Albanian lyp (“to beg”), Russian любовь (ljubovʹ, “love”), Lithuanian liaupsė (“praise”), Latin libido (“desire, lust”), Polish lubić (“to like”), Persian آلفتن (âloftan, “to enamor”), Sanskrit लोभ (lobha, “desire, greed”).
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms
NYT Puzzle Appearances
Accepted in 16 recorded puzzles:
- 2026-08-19VELNOPR
- 2026-07-05ODEFILV
- 2026-04-29VATEGLO
- 2026-02-13LDENOUV
- 2025-09-06VCDELPO
- 2025-05-31LYAVEBO
- 2025-01-29VOANECL
- 2024-09-06VDLFEIO
- 2024-08-13OVETLIN
- 2024-06-28OATVGEL
- 2024-03-06LBENOTV
- 2024-02-14VENIGLO
+4 earlier appearances in the archive.