Nine New Names for Love
I found this on an astrology post at the Village Voice by Rob Brezsny (go down to the Virgo entry):
“The Eskimos had 52 names for snow because it was important to them,” wrote novelist Margaret Atwood. “There ought to be as many for love.” Your assignment, as Brezsny suggested, is to coin one.
At the moment I am hopelessly in love with my puppies, so maybe “puppiophileism?”
Or veronilove?
Or amoramilt?
I can also give you “affiction,” the deep love you feel for a new story idea.
Your turn.
puppiophileism has my vote though amoramilt could achieve great usuage in our wacky tongue.I adore Rob Brezsny’s horoscopes for the beautiful flow of words he splays across the page. They are the only horoscopes I read every single one of every week since I find it helps me figure out my characters.
I also recommend his book Pronoia is the antidote for paranoia. Reading that book is my favorite way of breaking a bad mood.
The American Heritage Dictionary has 10 definitions for love (n). I always thought that was one reason so many people found the notion of love confusing — there were so many different ways to interpret it.
Skigasam- The feeling you get from shushing down the mountain. Or Pol’Amour, for the soft and snuggly wrapped in a hug feel of Polar Fleece. ( Sorry, I have a Polar Fleece fetish today.)
angoragasm - the feeling you get when you wear a soft, warm angora sweater on a day when it’s filthy cold and wet outside but you’re sitting by a warm fireside with a good book and all the chores done.
(Sorry, Slave Driver, couldn’t resist. I have an angora sweater fetish today
chocoorgasm — love of chocolate so intense that it’s better than sex.
Y’all seem to be fixated on the “gasm” today! How about “punctuaffection”. It could refer to an infatuation with either punctuation or punctuality!
Aga-pup-e (from the Greek agape)–spiritual love of my puppy.
Oh, and “Samoa-philia.” Love of coconut/chocolate Girl Scout cookies.
How about duvetophilia - the love of snuggling under a duvet (or a pile of them) with your sweetheart on a day when it is too %@&$ cold to go outside (-40F wind chill).
K9twingle….
to the tune of Muskrat Love (earworm)…
Muskrat, muskrat candlelight
Doin’ the town and doin’ it right
In the evenin’
It’s pretty pleasin’
Muskrat Susie, Muskrat Sam
Do the jitterbug out in muskrat land
And they shimmy
And Sammy’s so skinny
And they whirled and they twirled and they tangoed
Singin’ and jingin’ the jango
Floatin’ like the heavens above
It looks like muskrat love
Nibbling on bacon, chewin’ on cheese
Sammy says to Susie “Honey, would you please be my missus?”
And she say yes
With her kisses
And now he’s ticklin’ her fancy
Rubbin’ her toes
Muzzle to muzzle, now anything goes
As they wriggle, and Sue starts to giggle
And they whirled and they twirled and they tangoed
Singin’ and jingin’ the jango
Floatin’ like the heavens above
It looks like muskrat love
La da da da da …
Fluffilia (or possibly phluphphilia: love of my fluffy cat
Purrversion: love of both cats at once
Purrversion cracked me up. I never have to deal with that, my cats hate to share. One in the lap at a time.
How about “chromeance” - the love you feel for your Harley.
Or “vinfatuation” - that love you think you feel after about 3 glasses of wine. Very short-term, always gone by morning, but much easier to deal with when it’s gone before dessert’s over.
I’ve been trying to come up with a word to describe the love that makes you follow someone around with chicken soup and vitamin C when they’re sick. DH says it’s called nagging, but I’m certain there has to be a better name for it. The best I can come up with is feedacoldstarvea-fervor
I like this idea a lot. How about
affurmation: the contented feeling of knowing that all is right with the world as long as your cat is purring in your lap.
Sunsation: That quickening of the heart you get when you know you’ll soon be able to work in the garden again.
Hmmm this is fun, I’ll have to think on this some more.
libre-ated: a love of books
Affecthilation — (affection for annihilation) for us mystery readers/writers
Enamorham — for those of us enamored with hamsters
LOL you all are good!!!
insanitiamor (Love is insanity?) Okay that’s a bit negative how about passionaphilliac? (I think that would mean a tendency toward passion.)
Litophilic
Verbklempt
Enspamored (when someone loves you soooo much he sends you bad jokes and chain letters every day)
Philatellyic (love of TVs? love of Philadelphia? love of TVs in postage-stamp-size Philly apartments?)
Bowlegged over (bowled over by someone’s prowess at the Reverse Cowgirl)
This is actually worse than the earworms. How will I stop?
OK- no love word to contribute, but Dear God, the smile on Milton is adorable!
awwgasm - when something or someone is too adorable
Egads, that definitely deserves an award of some kind
Thanks, Jenny, for starting this. Here I sit, alone in the house, laughing my head off in front of the computer. There are those who wouldn’t find that unusual.
I vote for awwgasm too.
What about lovotion - hopefdlessly devoted kind of love.
Or hopelessly even…
I’m fresh out of new words, but Jenny, I so get the total puppy love. I am so crazy about my 10 month old Spaniel pups. I know I loved my previous dogs (Rest in peace, Bailey and Moe), so it felt a little weird that I seem to feel so much more joy and love for Nat and Pyxi. Then it hit me, like a slap in a V8 ad. This is the first time I’ve had two dogs at once. Double the dogs = double the love!
Off topic-but are you sure that those puppies have enough toys?? I think I saw an inch or too of space around them not blanketed with a toy.
Well, they eat a lot of them. It tends to thin the herd.
I’m loving this thread.
I’ve been in Mexico and spent many days oceanside. Beach is playa in Spanish. So… Playamor — love of beaches.
I love “Affiction.” So perfect.
Well, to continue the dachshund theme, this is one of the cutest things I’ve seen in a while:
http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/02/post-1.html
So, how about doxporcophilia? or canporcamour?
Ahhhh, endlesslydeeppuppylove - nothing like it. And don’t I see Lucy behind Veronica, fast asleep?
How about petamour - that would cover any and all pets that folks have.
Don’t know if this will come through, but a certified dachsophile, you’ll appreciate it (and so will everyone else who hangs out here, I’m sure).
Love? This little dachsie mama definitely has it.
http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/02/post-1.html
Only just saw this post but I think I’d prefer miltamore.
Armore: love of the White Knight on his trusty steed who’s come to rescue the heroine
Shelflove (what may happen when you’re in the library’s back stacks, browsing the erotica collection)
Parshill (partial to infomercials)
Cakche (the ache for cake)
felinophilia (love of my cats)
feline-fishophilia (my cats love of their food)
maternalmania (the overwhelming feeling of love I get when I hear my one-year old’s belly laugh)
exasperfection (the feeling of being simultaneously exasperated by and endeared to your spouse by one of his many, many bad habits)
Amorable: it’s just so darn adorable, you’ve got no other choice but to love it. Like Milt.
Miltorable (Milton tore open the garbage but looked too cute to punish)
erartica - the passionate love of artists and their gorgeous, fascinating output.
phyllios - love of spanakopita, baclava and anything else made of phyllo dough.
and my personal favorite:
sistheragape - the warm, fuzzy feeling you get after spending the afternoon with your best friends exploring life’s vagaries
LOL, Jenifer…that’s what I get for not reading through the posts first.
But it was worth a replay, anyway.
Not quite on topic: Cinderellaitis, aka briditis. Getting entirely too caught up in wedding planning.
Definitely off topic: rainbrella.
Ficturbanalgia–Longing to return to River Bend.
(-: Some very good ones here. I don’t think mine are very original, but it’s a windy, sleety, snowy day, and they make me feel warm and loved.
That cocoalicious feeling when you curl up with your comfort-book and loveknit afghan, and listen to your sweet-lovey-li’l-ones play Barbies in front of you. Ahhhh.
I got nothing. But that smile on Milton’s face just made my day!
Great thread, this!
Friendshop:
Being close to someone you meet regularly at the mall.
You guys are just a bunch of petophiles.
Seriously, was Atwood wanting names built around the objects of love (of which we already have plenty, as far as I can tell), or was she talking about shades and tones of feeling? That, I think, would be a lot more valuable. I love my niece, I love chocolate, I love bulgogi, I love I love cats, I love men, I love my mother, I love my father, I love my friends — but each one in different ways.
We need to recognize that when a horny teenage boy says “I love you” to a girl he wants, what he thinks he means, what he really means, and what she hears are different things. When a 2-year-old says “Mommy, I love you,” it means something different than Mommy’s love for her. And so on, and on, and on. This is the area where we need more vocabulary, to my mind.
Supposedly the Greeks had four different words for love (agape/eros/philia/I forget the fourth), but this turns out to be not quite helpful either. Eros had meant sexual love, but by the New Testament period it had taken on negative connotations, so agape took on some of eros’ older sense, including a spouse’s love for his or her spouse. Has anyone else heard of “limerence”, for that good old-fashioned love that makes you lose sleep and appetite over someone?
Limerance. Is that from Erich Fromm? I think that’s where I first read about it, in The Art of Loving. I love his analysis of immature love/infatuation/limerance and mature love/unconditional love. I really liked the way he argued that immature love/limerance was a necessary step, not frivolous but valuable, the step that may mature into unconditional love. It takes the sting out of limerance because you ALWAYS feel like an idiot when you’re in the throes, But it’s good, it’s necessary.
As for Atwood, since the comparison was to the different words for snow, I think it’s up in the air. I’m sure there are different words for packed snow, snow flurries, wet snow, icy snow, etc. different states of snow, so possibly she meant words for different states of love instead of different kinds of love. But I think it can be argued that the different words for snow are for different kinds of snow, too.
It’s a good point, though. Thanks for bringing it up.
Limerance is “the crush” or “the big obsession” where there is attraction from both sides but it is a little off kilter, more fantasy based. There’s this push me pull me dance thing going on.
(Don’t kill me but sort of like the basis for most romantic novels.)
The only way to stop the fantasy is for one or the other of the duo to declare real feelings, then it dissipates or takes off in a new direction. Or something like that.
I got to thinking. LIME is sour combine it with RANCE and you have the bitter-sweet journey of romance. No?
I heard that the touareg in the Sahara desert also have a lot of different words for wind (or was it sand?) because it’s so relevant for them to describe the difference - as it is, I suppose, for the Inuit to differentiate kinds of snow. (I learned that ‘Eskimo’ is not PC.)
I think this will always happen if you have the need to distinguish things beyond the vocabulary they are assigned. That’s why some groups develop such a strange code or jargon. Such as nobody but members of our family could understand the term “gay noodles”.
petophiles - lol! Good one Duncan
Because I have the mind that has to look some things up (also, I am not too far behind at the moment): the fourth kind of love described by the Greeks is storge, the love between parents and children.
I don’t speak Greek, but I can’t imagine a way to pronounce that in an attractive way. And if it has made its way into any English words, as a root, I can’t think of one.
Diane -
I suppose you’d pronounce it so that it rhymes with Corgi (the Queen’s dogs).
C.S. Lewis’s THE FOUR LOVES discusses the four types: affection (he doesn’t, IIRC, use storge); philia, friendship; eros, sexual/romantic love; and agape disinterested love of others, or of God, or of God for mankind.
Jenny, I don’t think ‘limerence’ came from Erich Fromm. It came from a psychologist named Dorothy Tennov, who wrote a book called “Love and Limerence” that was first published in 1980, reissued in 1999, and is still in print. (It looks like Simone DeBeauvoir gave it a blurb, which impresses me.) I read it one time. As I recall, limerence is lovesickness, obsession, the kind of love that takes away your appetite and makes it impossible to sleep. I think that Cynthia Heimel did a better job on this sort of thing in her immortal Sex Tips for Girls.
I should reread The Art of Loving, it has been a while. I liked best about it, as I recall, that he put more stress on loving, rather than being loved — he said that most people think the hard part is finding someone to love *them*, that loving someone else comes easy. More than that I don’t remember, so it’s probably time to read it again.