true love
See also: truelove
English
Etymology
From Middle English trewe love, from Old English trēow-lufu.
Noun
true love (countable and uncountable, plural true loves)
- (originally) Faithful love.
- (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?
- When all’s done, what hast thou won
- 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.
- 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Loues Labour's loſt, act I, scene ii:
- (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.
- I leant my back unto an aik,
- 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.
- 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):
- (uncountable) Feelings of love that are adhered to faithfully, or the faithful manifestation of such feelings.
- (by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love.
- (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.
- (countable) The unique individual for whom one feels such affection.
- He was my one true love.
- (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.
- (uncountable) The form of romantic affection that is considered pure and wholly positive, not just based on feelings of lust and sex.
- (countable) A thing for which a person feels an intense love.
- Cinematography is my only true love.
Translations
romantic affection
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individual
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thing
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Anagrams
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