08-17-2006, 05:03 PM
Tell me these twelve subtly different, yet distinct, words for "love" and I'll concede defeat. Just because we are overly redundant in some areas of our language does not mean we aren't vague in any others. Most of our words that are synonymous with love relate to the interpersonal relationship; one is even the title of one of my stores. What I see in my dictionary is that we have three meanigns for "love", with another 7 divisions between two of the three primary meanings.
Does my thesaurus show other synonyms? Yes, but that doesn't mean the word isn't overly vague in and of itself.
Look at this list of synonyms for just one context of love:
deep affection, fondness, tenderness, warmth, intimacy, attachment, endearment; devotion, adoration, doting, idolization, worship; passion, ardor, desire, lust, yearning, infatuation, besottedness
The above is the list for what one might classify as "romantic love." Several are beyond the ken of most speakers of the language today and they would say "who talks like that?" if you were to say they were 'besotted' or that they 'yearned' for someone. Do we have thew words? Theoretically by potential, yes. Do we use the words? Generally, not most of them. DO we distinguish with conceptually different words? Not really.
Does my thesaurus show other synonyms? Yes, but that doesn't mean the word isn't overly vague in and of itself.
Look at this list of synonyms for just one context of love:
deep affection, fondness, tenderness, warmth, intimacy, attachment, endearment; devotion, adoration, doting, idolization, worship; passion, ardor, desire, lust, yearning, infatuation, besottedness
The above is the list for what one might classify as "romantic love." Several are beyond the ken of most speakers of the language today and they would say "who talks like that?" if you were to say they were 'besotted' or that they 'yearned' for someone. Do we have thew words? Theoretically by potential, yes. Do we use the words? Generally, not most of them. DO we distinguish with conceptually different words? Not really.