The Definition of Love

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As dictionaries have been adding new words and revising definitions yearly, we have seen a transition in the definition of love. Today, a commonly accepted definition of love is “an amorous episode” (Webster). This concept of love began with its portrayal in Hollywood media, causing the history and true meaning of the word to become lost. While love used to be defined as the “strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties,” or “affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests” (Webster), the most recent definition is most similar to what it seems Hollywood is portraying as infatuation. This can be defined as “an extravagantly foolish or unreasoning passion” (Oxford). What movies often portray as “love” is, in fact, this infatuation that causes us to believe that when you are in love, you tend to love the act of being in love, not the other person. Mainstream media does not differentiate between love and infatuation; it simply sells a conflation of concepts into the term “love.”
Love, in the terms of husband and wife, can be traced back to the beginning of the Bible:
Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. (Gen. 2.22-24.).
Furthermore, they serve one another in a loyal commitment to each other. Love began as a mutual feeling with genuine intentions as the two people work together to please and assist one another with care. Love continued from Adam and Eve into Medieval Times, and this notion of love as ...

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