The language de l'amour

Is French the language of love? I know little of French, and the little I know doesn’t seem to support that claim. I remain entirely swoonless when movies trot out French utterances to melt the hearts of resistant would-be lovers. To be fair, I’m not the swooning type. Let’s put the love-lingo theory to a different test. Of a list of love-related English words (generated by my own brainstorming), how many came to us directly from or through French? A surprising number.* 

French Etymology                 Non-French Etymology

  adoration                                 chocolate***

  affection                                   Cupid

  amorous                                  heart

  ardor                                         kiss

  beauty                                       love

  charity                                       mate

  commitment                            passion

  companion                              sexy

  couple                                      Valentine

  desire

  embrace

  enamored

  favor

  February 14**

  fervor

  fiancé / fiancée

  flowers

  infatuation

  marriage

  regard

  romantic

The etymology has spoken. Out of thirty arbitrarily chosen words pertaining to love, twenty-one came to us from or through French. The language of love is 70 percent French.

* Etymology sources: Online Etymology Dictionary and Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. I do realize that this is not a valid test of "the language of love."If this post were any more tongue-in-cheek, “French kissing” would have appeared on the list.

** Of ambiguously French, non-etymological sources. February 14 was “probably the date” of the “informal first day of spring in whatever French region invented the custom” of St. Valentine’s Day (Online Etymology Dictionary).

*** From Nahuatl xocolatl, which makes a strong argument for Nahuatl being the true language of love.

Image courtesy of Jeeves Miguel (joaoism).