Love Letters:

How do I love thee? (thee is an archaic English for "you")

Let me count the words! The word love derive from the Old English lufu, which in turn comes from the Indo-European root leubh (to care, desire).

Other love children of leubh are belief (a loved idea),
leave (permission based on love, as in "I grant you leave"),
and libido (love machine,a la Austin Powers).

English still carries a torch for the Greek and Latin words for love. Our language has philandered with the Greek hunk phil,
as in philosophy (love of wisdom),
philanthropy (love of human beings),
Grecophile (love of Greece),
and even philodendron (love of trees, because this plant often twines itself around tree trunks).

The Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, slipped an aphrodisiac (food or drink that intensifies sexual desire ) into English, leaving our language more vulnerable to her Roman counterpart, Venus, who gives us the respectable venerate (to love, respect) but also the disreputable venereal (transmitted by love, i.e., sexual contact).

Our love-starved language has also gone looking for love in all the young faces. See the walls-to-walls graffiti on Face book Friends.

English has fallen for Aphrodite's son Eros, as in erotic and erogenous, and his Roman counterpart Cupid, as in cupidity and that arch little archer himself, Ay, there's the cherub!

What's more, the Latin word for love, amor, gives us paramours (lovers) who feel amorous (lovey-dovey) even if they're amateurs (people who pursue an endeavour out of sheer love, such as those who study eels for fun). Now that's a moray!

Let's affectionately grab some other love handles.

Fond, for instance, reflects the fact that people in love sometimes act like fools.
Fond comes from fonned, the past participle of the archaic verb fonnen, meaning to be foolish. So when William Shakespeare's character Julius Caesar tells Metellus Cimber to " be not fond," he means, be not foolish (and stop fondling that knife under your toga).

And if you break bread every morning with a lover, he or she may become known as your companion. That's appropriate, because companion comes from the Late Latin companio, someone you break bread (panis) with (com).

Yours,
lover true ;)

Thee love me too, companion.