by Kevin Burton
Yes, today’s list of words about love from Merriam-Webster Dictionary comes just in time for Sweetest Day which is coming up Saturday, but these words are not all cuddle-worthy.
This list looks at love “from both sides now,” like the Joni Mitchell song made famous by Judy Collins. There’s some good and some bad. So select carefully from this list as you fashion those love notes:
Aubade: a song or poem of lovers parting at dawn
Many a poet over the centuries has endeavored to write an aubade. Some contemporary aubades hew close to the definition of aubade mentioned here (such as “Aubade” by Amber Flora Thomas and “Aubade” by Mark Wunderlich) while are encapsulated more by aubade’s broader sense of “a song or poem greeting the dawn” (such as “Aubade” by Camille Rankine and “Aubade to Langston” by Rachel Eliza Griffiths).
Popular songwriters love aubades, too. A favorite earworm of ours happens to be “Angel of the Morning,” written by Chip Taylor and recorded by a number of artists, perhaps most notably by Juice Newton. We can hear her crooning its chorus now: “Just call me angel of the morning, angel / Just touch my cheek before you leave me, baby.”
Snoozle: to snuggle or nuzzle
This is just to say, we have looked up the word snoozle, that is in our dictionary and which
you were probably wondering what it meant.
Forgive us, it is perhaps a blend of snooze and nuzzle, so sweet, and so cute.
Osculate: to kiss
Osculate turns up mostly in humorous contexts as a fancy word meaning “to kiss.” The Latin noun for “kiss,” osculum, is also the diminutive of the Latin noun os, meaning “mouth.” Our adjective oral also comes from this root. Osculate (or its related noun osculation) might be used as an alternative to kiss to avoid repeating the latter word, or to bring an ironically clinical connotation to a common action for which slangier alternatives like smooch exist.
Uxorious: excessively fond of or submissive to a wife
The etymology of uxorious is straightforward: uxor is the Latin word for “wife,” and the English language sure does love slapping an -ious suffix on words whenever it gets a chance. The definition is perhaps less straightforward and dependent upon the eye of the beholder, i.e. is it even possible to be excessively fond of or submissive to one’s wife?
Tread carefully when answering this one, friends.
Billet-doux: a love letter
The French language has from temps to temps been called “the language of love,” and indeed the English language has borrowed quelques words and phrases from French that pertain to love, including paramour, amour-propre, amour courtois, amour-fou (“mad love; obsessive passion”), and billet-doux.
In French, billet doux means “sweet letter.” English writers first fell in love with the word during the 17th century and have been committed to using it as a romantic alternative to “love letter” ever since. Isn’t that doux?
Calf-love: transitory love or affection often experienced by young people
The term puppy-love is more commonly used than calf-love these days, perhaps owing to more people raising pets than cattle. But both refer to intense yet often fleeting affection experience by young—especially teenaged—couples.
Sheep’s eye: a shy longing and usually amorous glance —usually used in plural
Perhaps casting sheep’s eyes (as defined in our unabridged dictionary) at someone is a precursor to calf-love? Or perhaps hog heaven?
Amative: relating to or indicative of love
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…Elizabeth Barrett Browning came up with eight ways to express her love in her sonnet; here we offer six ways, or rather six words, to describe those expressions of love.
Besides the familiar amorous there’s the less familiar synonym amative, as well as amatory, amoristic, amatorious, and amatorial. What we love about this list is that all the words stem from Latin amāre, meaning “to love.”
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