E 0547          LOVE

The word " love " is of Germanic origin .

H 0534         ב ב ל , ב ל

Concept of root : heart and feelings

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

; ב ל

-

-

ב ב ל

lev, liv.;

levav;

lavav;

libbèv

heart;

heart;

to be liked;

to fascinate

Related English words

love, lief, Old English lēov

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

;ב ל

ב ב ל

-

-

lev, liv;

levav;

lavav;

libbèv

heart;

heart;

to be liked;

to fascinate

l . v;

l . b

Latin

libere, lubere;

lubido, libido

libére,

lubére;

lubido,

libido

to be liked, loved;

desire, lust

-

l . b

English

love ;

lief

love ;

lief

l . v

l . f

Old English

lēov ;

lēof

love ;

lief

l . v

l . f

German

Liebe

libe

love

l . b

Old High German

liubi

liubi

love

l . b

Middle Dutch

lieve;

lief

līve;

līf

love, pleasure; lief

l . v;

l . f

Russian

любить

lyubitj

to love

l . b

Swedish

ljuv

lyuv

lovely, agreeable

l . v

 

 

Proto-Semitic *LIB-, *LUB- --- *LUB, "LIB" Indo-European

 

 

We chose to have here a separate entry on account of the difference between the European words from the Entry E 0542 (Hebrew 0532) and those from this one, E 0547 (Hebrew 0534).

 

Culturally the concepts of "heart" and "love" are strongly connected. Perhaps because love is one of those things that really make the heart beat stronger. We suppose, in this entry, that the link is also linguistic. We will look into a few indications.

 

 

 

Note:
  • English " love " is practically world-wideknown as word, but " lief " less so. It stands for " beloved, dear ", but is also used for " ready, willing " in a phrase like " I would as lief do…". Probably both have been lent from Middle Dutch, as Old English had " lēof " here .

 

Note:
  • Hebrew uses the combination " ל ב ה, libbà" in various ways. The noun "libbà" is "heart" and the noun "labbà" is "flame". The verb "libbà" says "to lit", both figuratively (passions) and literally (a fire). This verb is an intensive form and we should ask what the meaning of the basic form "*lavà" can have been. We may suppose that it expressed , less than the so intensive inflaming of passions, the more basic "liking things with the heart" or perhaps "to have at heart". And that is very much near the origin of the Germanic words. But decidedly nearer and in a more clear way so, we may come with the abovementioned verbs and their extended root " L B B". "Lavav" is " to be likable" and the intensive form "libbèv" stands for " to fascinate", besides " to enflame".

 

Note:
  • Hebrew. The declensions of the word "lev" have in fact the vowel "I", like in "livi" that stands for "my heart. The words " ל ו "and " ל ו א ", both pronounced "lu", in the Bible express a desire, like "if only" or . "Heaven may wish", and they have the sound "U". But in fact this evidence is rather limited.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. Proto-Semitic had this root that continued into Hebrew, seen also in Aramaic and Syriac "ל ב א , libbà" and "lebbà = heart, stomach". Ugaritic used the same two consonant root. Ethiopian has "lebb", Arabic "lubb" and Akkadian "libbu".

     

    Proto-Semitic probably used already "*ל ב , L B". In our comparison we presume forms like "LUB-" and "LIB-" were used in Proto-Semitic.

 

Note:
  • Germanic, as seen in English "love" with this root expresses not only passionate love between man and woman, but all kinds of loves and likings, from food to simple actions. In modern language this is still the case with the verb, but with the noun in German and Dutch things have changed. In Middle Dutch this comes out clearly. The adjective "lief" still said "pleasant, agreeable" as well as "beloved". And this has remained also in the less used modern English word "lief".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. . The initial consonant in all languages is "L" and the following vowel is often either a long " I " or a diphthongized "I " as in "JO", JU" o "IU". Old English besides the adjective "lēof " > English "lief" had the noun "lufu" > English "love". This vowel "U" is also found in Gothic "lubo" besides "liufs". Old High German has "luba" and "liob". There is no clear pattern. The second consonant "B" or "V" sometimes has become a "F" and even as in Middle High German "liep" temporarily a "P". The probable Proto-Germanic form was "*L I B-" or "*L U V-", but it may already have developed into "*L IU V".

 

Note:
  • The vowels. We see in English "O", in Old High German, Swedish and Russian "YU", and in High German and Dutch "I". We recall that a "W"-sound or "O"-sound may diphthongize into amongst others "YU" and via this or directly change into "I", in the development of both European languages and Hebrew. This may explain differences, but we should like to have indications for such a development within this root also for Hebrew.

 

Note:
  • Latin gives us a complicate picture of words beginning with "lib". And among them we find very important ones, such as "liber" is "free" and the abovementioned "libido", that have been accepted in most modern languages. Yet there is also the verb "libere" that says "to skim" and also "to sacrifice". A "libra" is a "balance" or "scales", and a "liber" is of course as well a "book" as found in an English "library". One wonders if the meaning of this word, "book" may have been derived from that of "bark", or "inner bark", identically sounding "liber".

 

Note:
  • Indo-European

     

    Greek seems to have just a related word "λυπτα, lüpta = hetaira, hetaere".

     

    Old Indian "lúbhyati = (he) desires".

     

    Slavic has a hypothesis of "*ljūb-" in harmony with Russian as shown in the tabel above.

     

    Baltic is near with a hypothetic basis of "*leub-", supported by a Lithuanian "l'ubiti = to love".

     

     

    Indo-European seems to have had the consonants "L . B". The used vowel may have been "U" or "I", with the first one more probable : "*L U B-" and "*L I B-".

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 03/11/2012 at 16.54.13