GO DEEPERinheritanceprobable
Proto-Germanic · c. 500 BCE*lubō
love
- SOUND
- A regular West Germanic continuation with final-vowel and inflectional reshaping.
- MEANING
- The central sense remained stable.
- SCHOLAR
- Kroonen 2013
- CONFIDENCE
- probable
CANONICAL LANGUAGE GRAPH
TRACE A WORD ↗*lubu
love
- DATE
- c. 200 BCE–600 CE
- SENSE
- default
- FAMILY
- Indo-European / West Germanic
- CANONICAL KEY
- node:4:lubu:reconstructed
*
This form is reconstructed by comparison. It is not directly attested in this exact written form.
011
ANCESTRAL EDGES
ROOT OF THIS ROOT
021
DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES
THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP
DESCENDANTinheritanceprobable
Old English · before 725–c. 1150lufu
love, affection, friendliness
- SOUND
- West Germanic medial /b/ developed a fricative realization represented by Old English ⟨f⟩.
- MEANING
- The affective core remained stable.
- SCHOLAR
- Kroonen · comparative Germanic evidence
- CONFIDENCE
- probable — Exact intermediate phonetic detail depends on reconstruction.
033
TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE
EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE
This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.
- UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES
- 3
- REVIEWED EDGES
- 3
- DEEPEST PATH
- 3
- MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED
- 1
HISTORICAL STEP 011 EDGE
- SOUND
- West Germanic medial /b/ developed a fricative realization represented by Old English ⟨f⟩.
- MEANING
- The affective core remained stable.
HISTORICAL STEP 021 EDGE
- SOUND
- Final unstressed -u was lost; Old English intervocalic ⟨f⟩ had a voiced realization [v].
- MEANING
- Religious, familial, erotic, and social senses continued.
HISTORICAL STEP 031 EDGE
Middle Englishlove / luve→Present-Day English · c. 1500–todaylovedeep affection; to feel deep affection
- SOUND
- Spelling stabilized around love while the short stressed vowel continued into modern English.
- MEANING
- Inherited noun and verb expanded into preference, devotion, and address.
“Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.
040
RECORDED EVIDENCE
ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE
NO RECORDED WITNESS ATTACHED.
That is expected for a reconstructed form: the node is inferred from comparison, not quoted from a surviving occurrence.
051
EDITORIAL REUSE