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# The etymology of “love”
- URL: https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/love/
- Published: 2026-02-14T21:38:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-03-15T14:18:45.000Z
- Description: “love” and its many related words in English
- Author: Daniel W. Hieber, Ph.D.
- Tags: Newsletter, etymology

The Proto-Indo-European language had a word \*leubʰ- ‘love, care, desire’, and today I’m going to tell you all the ways this word has come down to us in English 6,000 years later—a kind of “reverse etymology”.

*Prefer a video version of this post? Watch here:*

For those not familiar with Proto-Indo-European: it’s the hypothetical, reconstructed ancestor language from which all modern Indo-European languages descend and was spoken around 4000 BCE. There are an estimated 454 living Indo-European languages in the family, including English, Hindi, Spanish, French, Russian, Portuguese, German, Persian, and many others.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/2026/02/image-20.png)

The approximate present-day distribution of the Indo-European language family within Europe and Asia, color-coded by branch. ([Wikipedia: Indo-European languages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European%5Flanguages?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com))

### **🔠** Abbreviations Used in this Article

|     |                     |
| --- | ------------------- |
| D   | Dutch               |
| L   | Latin               |
| ME  | Modern English      |
| OE  | Old English         |
| PG  | Proto-Germanic      |
| PIE | Proto-Indo-European |

The first **reflex** (descendant) of \*leubʰ- in this list comes via Latin. In the Italic branch of Indo-European, \*leubʰ- developed into the Latin word *libēre* ‘to please’ and the derived noun *libīdō* ‘desire’. As you can guess, that noun was then borrowed into English at the turn of the 1900s as the word *libido*.

🔍

PIE \*leubʰ- ‘love, care, desire’ → L **libēre* ‘to please’ → L **libīdō* ‘desire’ ⇢ ME **libido*

ℹ️

The asterisk `*` before a word indicates that it has been reconstructed using the [****comparative method**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative%5Fmethod?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) in historical linguistics. The word was never actually attested in any written source. Instead, it is a hypothetical reconstruction based on available evidence and the many techniques linguists have at their disposal for winding back the clock on language history.  
  
If an entire parent language has little or no extant written texts and has been reconstructed using these techniques, it has the prefix “Proto-”. Proto-Indo-European is the reconstructed parent language of all the modern Indo-European languages, while Proto-Germanic is the reconstructed parent language of all the modern Germanic languages (and is itself a child language descended from Proto-Indo-European).

In the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family, however, the word took on a new meaning: Proto-Germanic \*laubō ‘permission’. This is a great example of how the meanings of words can sometimes shift from one stage of an action to another, or from one concept to something closely related. In this case, if you desire something, you may be looking for permission to do or acquire it, and so the meaning of the word expanded to include not just ‘desire’ but also ‘permission’. This word then evolved into the Old English *lēaf*, which became Modern English *leave*, as in, “to take one’s leave”. (This sense of *leave* is unrelated to the sense of ‘to go away’; the two words just happen to be homonyms.)

🔍

PIE \*leubʰ- ‘love, care, desire’ → PG \*laubō ‘permission’ → OE **lēaf* ‘leave’ → ME **leave*

There was also a prefixed form of that Old English word: *belēfan* ‘to give leave or permission to’, or perhaps literally ‘to hold dear’ (possibly retaining some of the original meaning from Proto-Indo-European), and that led to the Modern English *believe*.

🔍

PIE \*leubʰ- ‘love, care, desire’ → PG \*laubō ‘permission’ → OE **belēfan* ‘believe’ → ME **believe*

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The Proto-Germanic word \*laubō ‘permission’ was also inherited by Dutch and appears in the prefixed word *verlof* ‘permission’, literally ‘for-leave’. In the 1600s the Dutch word was borrowed into English and the final /f/ sound was lost, yielding Modern English *furlough*.

🔍

PIE \*leubʰ- ‘love, care, desire’ → PG \*laubō ‘permission’ → D **verlof* ‘permission’ ⇢ ME **furlough*

Lastly, that Proto-Indo-European root \*leubʰ- didn’t *only* change its meaning to ‘permission’ in Proto-Germanic. It also kept its original meaning ‘love’ in the form \*lubō. In Old English \*lubō became *lufu*, and that evolved into the word *love*.

🔍

PIE \*leubʰ- ‘love, care, desire’ → PG \*lubō ‘love’ → OE **lufu* ‘love’ ⇢ ME **love*

You can see the complete etymological flowchart for all these word histories below.

Happy Valentine’s Day! 💜

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c7/75/c775a216-7ca2-4c5f-96a7-f2defe0fd756/content/images/2026/02/image-21.png)

## 📖 Recommended Reading

![Book cover for Useless Etymology: Offbeat Word Origins for Curious Minds by Jess Zafarris, featuring a teal background with ornate white line art and a large ribbon banner reading “Useless,” plus small illustrated motifs including planets, a crescent moon, a quill in an ink bottle, an apple, mushrooms, and two vintage typewriters.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!KNoU!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8c3fcfcb-c30e-4424-af0d-2af50ceaee07_956x1500.png "Book cover for Useless Etymology: Offbeat Word Origins for Curious Minds by Jess Zafarris, featuring a teal background with ornate white line art and a large ribbon banner reading “Useless,” plus small illustrated motifs including planets, a crescent moon, a quill in an ink bottle, an apple, mushrooms, and two vintage typewriters.")

[Amazon](https://amzn.to/4krA7qf?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) | [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/110785/9781399809184?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

![Book cover for Etymologicon: The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language by Mark Forsyth, featuring a bright yellow background with large, stylized black lettering spelling “ETYMOLOGICON” across the cover and the author’s name in a black band at the bottom.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zqmr!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4e7149d4-8250-420b-90d6-10ff763b957e_304x466.png "Book cover for Etymologicon: The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language by Mark Forsyth, featuring a bright yellow background with large, stylized black lettering spelling “ETYMOLOGICON” across the cover and the author’s name in a black band at the bottom.")

[Amazon](https://amzn.to/4eupBKB?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) | [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/110785/9780425260791?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

![Book cover for The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson, with a dark blue header featuring a review quote, the title in white, “bill bryson” in large red lowercase letters on a white background, and a collage along the bottom including a portrait of Shakespeare, a photo of Bryson, and historical imagery.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tvQh!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5204ea95-0058-4287-a157-247459b838fe_310x466.png "Book cover for The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson, with a dark blue header featuring a review quote, the title in white, “bill bryson” in large red lowercase letters on a white background, and a collage along the bottom including a portrait of Shakespeare, a photo of Bryson, and historical imagery.")

[Amazon](https://amzn.to/4hAn1oZ?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com) | [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/110785/9780380715435?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

## 📑 Sources

- [*The Oxford dictionary of word origins*](https://amzn.to/40XqE11?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)
- [*The Chambers dictionary of etymology*](https://amzn.to/4jVF4HD?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)
- [*The American Heritage dictionary of Indo-European roots*](https://amzn.to/4hCLFoH?ref=linguisticdiscovery.com)

📚

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