INVENTION Dare you to invent a new word for Love (contain your definition)

[Airmid]

Objective - an alternative 'dictionary'. I have chosen the word 'love' to begin with as it is demanding and therefore poses an adequate initial challenge

 

[slimvictor]

This is intriguing to me, but I don't quite understand.
Shouldn't the definition be "love"?
If not, it's not a word for love, right?

The way "love" is used in English seems a bit strange to me.
You can say "I love my mother" or "I love my wife" or "I love chocolate". These are all quite different (unless you are a real freak!), and words for love in some other languages cannot be used for all three.
For example, in Japanese, most people don't even use the word for love (ai suru) to a romantic partner. Too embarrassing, too dramatic... Instead they use the word for like (suki).
In Chinese, you cannot say "I love apples" (wo ai pingguo) without being though a really radical person who is sexually attracted to the fruit.

English does have specific categories of love instantiated in common words (platonic love, brotherly love, romantic / erotic love, adoration, etc.).

C.S. Lewis distinguished "need-love" (a baby's love for its mother) from "gift-love" (the mother's love for the baby, I guess, or God's love for humanity, according to him), and also a third kind: appreciative-love (as in love of the sea).

So, are you looking for a new word that covers all the meanings of "love" in English, or is it ok if it just refers to some of them?

 

[Airmid]

Looking for a new word!..you can invent your own. Hard that's the point. It's a word 'thrown' around but has such profound implications. See, I love this idea of working this out. That is our task, to work this out. Like how can ONE word cover so many emotions?..bit lazy perhaps. Is it possible?

 

[slimvictor]

I love this idea of working this out.

I want to distinguish strength and type.

I am thinking about signed languages, and how you could probably just make your gesture a little bigger, or smaller, and convey differences in the strength of the word.

Maybe we could do something like that. Say,
love1 = like, enjoy (e.g. apples)
love2 = strong enjoyment
love3 = overpowering enjoyment

Then, we should distinguish at least romantic love, platonic love (including for family and friends), and appreciation love (e.g. for the sea).

E.g.
AppLove1 = I like these trees
AppLove3 = OMG these trees are the best fucking things ever on this earth
PlatLove1 = you are my friend
PlatLove3 = you are my best friend
RomLove1 = I am interested in you and could fall for you
RomLove3 = I am totally head over heels for you and want to press naughty parts.

 

[Airmid]

I think your way of approaching this idea is impressive, not sure how practical? So we need to think harder. Thank you for putting your thoughts in to this and please do not stop