true love

From Middle English trewe love, from Old English trēow-lufu.

true love (countable and uncountable, plural true loves)

1. (originally) Faithful love.
   1. (uncountable) Feelings of love that are adhered to faithfully, or the faithful manifestation of such feelings.
      • 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Loues Labour's loſt, act I, scene ii:

        I shall be forsworn, which is a great argument of falsehood, if I love. And how can that be true love which is falsely attempted? Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love, […]

      • 1875, Sidney Lanier, “The Symphony”:

        When all’s done, what hast thou won
        Of the only sweet that’s under the sun?
        Ay, canst thou buy a single sigh
        Of true love’s least, least ecstasy?

      • 1988, Evelyn Mullay, The Artist at Work: Narrative Technique in Chrétien de Troyes, page 88:

        For both Thomas and Chrétien true love is identified with the ability to be true to one’s commitment, and Fenice is justifiably confident of her ability to be constant.

   2. (countable) A lover who is faithful to the object of his or her affection or faithfully loved themselves.
      • 1765, “Waly Waly, Love Be Bonny”, as quoted in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs, and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets (1905), Thomas Percy (editor):

        I leant my back unto an aik,
        I thought it was a trusty tree;
        But first it bow’d, and fyne it brak,
        Sae my true love did lightly me.

      • c. 1780, unknown author, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, in Mirth Without Mischief:

        The first day of Christmas
        My true love sent to me
        A partridge in a pear tree.

2. (by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.
   1. (uncountable) The form of romantic affection that is considered pure and wholly positive, not just based on feelings of lust and sex.

      Some believe that true love doesn’t exist.

      • 1847, A. J. W. Morrison, translating Friedrich von Schlegel, The Philosophy of Life, and Philosophy of Language: In a Course of Lectures, page 38:

        And as all true love is reciprocal, so also is true love lasting and indestructible; or, to “speak as a man,” even because it is the very inmost life of humanity, it is, therefore, true unto death.

      • 2006 January 26, Linda Morris, “Pope dedicates message to meaning of true love”, The Age, Melbourne:

        The leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics has tried to answer the age-old question of philosophers, playwrights and poets — the meaning of love — and concluded that erotic desire without self-sacrifice and spiritual devotion cannot be true love.

   2. (countable) The unique individual for whom one feels such affection.

      He was my one true love.

      • 1965, “Colours”, performed by Donovan:

        Yellow is the colour of my true love’s hair
        In the morning when we rise.

   3. (uncountable) The situation in which a couple is perfectly compatible and there is no better relationship, as set by a greater force such as God or fate.
3. (countable) A thing for which a person feels an intense love.

   Cinematography is my only true love.

• revolute