Dictionary

true love en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English trewe love, from Old English trēowlufu.

Meanings

1. (qualifier:originally, uncountable) Faithful love. ▸ Feelings of love that are adhered to faithfully, or the faithful manifestation of such feelings.
   • 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? 1875, Sidney Lanier, “The Symphony”
   • What are the joys wealth and honours bestow? Do they endure like true love's steady glow? 1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 542:
   • 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, […] 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Loues Labour's loſt, act I, scene ii
   • 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. 1988, Evelyn Mullay, The Artist at Work: Narrative Technique in Chrétien de Troyes, page 88:
2. (countable, qualifier:originally) Faithful love. ▸ A lover who is faithful to the object of his or her affection or faithfully loved themselves.
   • 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. 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)
   • The first day of Christmas My true love sent to me A partridge in a pear tree. c. 1780, unknown author, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, in Mirth Without Mischief:
3. (qualifier:by later reinterpretation, uncountable) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love. ▸ The form of romantic affection that is considered pure and wholly positive, not just based on feelings of lust and sex.
   • 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. 1847, Friedrich von Schlegel, translated by A. J. W. Morrison, The Philosophy of Life, and Philosophy of Language: In a Course of Lectures, page 38:
   • Some believe that true love doesn’t exist.
   • 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. 2006 January 26, Linda Morris, “Pope dedicates message to meaning of true love”, in The Age, Melbourne:
4. (countable, qualifier:by later reinterpretation) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love. ▸ The unique individual for whom one feels such affection.
   • Yellow is the colour of my true love’s hair In the morning when we rise. 1965, “Colours”, performed by Donovan:
   • He was my one true love.
5. (qualifier:by later reinterpretation, uncountable) Love that is in some sense purer or more unique than ordinary love. ▸ 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.
6. (countable) A thing for which a person feels an intense love.
   • Cinematography is my only true love.

Forms

Deriveds

the course of true love never did run smooth · true-love-knot

Translations (17)

pt amor verdadeiro (thing) · pt verdadeiro amor (thing) · pt amor verdadeiro (individual) · cmn 真愛 /真爱 (thing) · pt amor de verdade (thing) · pt verdadeiro amor (romantic affection) · pt amor de verdade (individual) · sw mapenzi ya dhati (romantic affection) · de wahre Liebe (romantic affection) · cmn 真愛 /真爱 (individual) · pt amor de verdade (romantic affection) · fi todellinen rakkaus (individual) · pt verdadeiro amor (individual) · cmn 真愛 /真爱 (romantic affection) · pt amor verdadeiro (romantic affection) · fi todellinen rakkaus (thing) · fi todellinen rakkaus (romantic affection)