Definitions of Love

By: Sean Savoie

In the last lesson we began to develop an understanding of the power of definition as a mode of development in an essay and to see whether a definition may in itself be an essay. I put forth the question “What is the true meaning of love?”

Here are some examples that define the meaning by using description as well as by explaining what love is not. Credit is given to the person or organization that has defined love.

“What is love? This mystical, mythical question goes back to ancient times—without a coherent answer. Each person’s experience of love is uniquely varied, and each person’s understanding of love is different from the next. Love varies from one period to another along the length of a human life; a person can have many loves, but each experience will be different from the next. Summing it up, or pinning it down, are both impossible.

Love is like the sunshine; no matter how tightly you shut down your heart, the sunlight will find a way to shine into it. Love’s process is unstoppable.

"Love is like a continually shattering mirror that always leaves behind images etched in people’s hearts; but it will itself remain a mystery forever.”

By: Nurmuhemmet Yasin

"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things; believes all things; hopes all things; endures all things."

                                Corithians

 

Origin of the word love:

The word Love is from Old English lufu, connected with Sanskrit lubh, 'to desire' and Latin lubere, 'to please'.

A dictionary definition of love from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Love is a condition or phenomenon of emotional primacy, or absolute value. Love generally includes an emotion of intense attraction to either another person, a place, or thing; and may also include the aspect of caring for or finding identification with those objects, including self-love. Love can describe an intense feeling of affection, an emotion or an emotional state. In ordinary use, it usually refers to interpersonal love, an experience usually felt by a person for another person. Love is commonly considered impossible to define. 

Different types of love:

·   Erotic love – desire characterized by sexual desires

·   Familial love – affection brokered through kinship connections, intertwined with concepts of attachment and bonding

·   Free love –

·   Platonic love – a close relationship in which sexual desire is nonexistent or has been suppressed or sublimated

·   Puppy love – romantic affection that is not "mature" or not "true". The term reflects a bias that love between youngsters is somehow less valid.

·   Religious love – devotion to one's deity or theology

·   Romantic love – affection characterized by a mix of emotional and sexual desire

·   True Love- Love without condition, motive or attachment. Simply loving someone for the sake of loving them.

·   Unrequited love – affection and desire not reciprocated or returned

·   Courtly love - sexual relations according to choice and unrestricted by marriage

Famous Quotes about love:

"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

"You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly." - Sam Keen

"Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit." - Peter Ustinov

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." - Lao Tzu

Proverbs about love:

All is fair in love and war.

Love conquers all.

All you love someone, set him free.

All you need is love.

Love can move mountains. 

            As is clear from the above definitions and descriptions, love, like many single words, has so many various definitions that it goes well beyond description. Ironically, these are the types of words or feelings that people have been trying to define for thousands of years.