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THE GRAPH.
Find a modern word—or search sideways through reconstructed roots, historical forms, meanings, languages, scholars, sources, claims, disputes, and witnesses.
013
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
adjectiveexact headword
lieb
The German adjective for dear, beloved, kind, or welcome, inherited through Middle High German liep and Old High German liob from the Germanic adjective branch also represented by Dutch lief and Gothic liufs.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounheadword prefix
Liebe
The German noun for love, inherited through Middle and Old High German and a Germanic abstract-noun formation distinct from the immediate noun ancestry of English love.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjective · nouncontrarian claim
lief
The Dutch adjective for dear, sweet, or kind and its substantivized use for a beloved person, inherited through the Germanic adjective branch.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗023
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
German / Indo-European
lieb
dear, beloved, kind, pleasant, welcome
- DATE
- Present-day German
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 1
German / Indo-European
Liebe
love; strong affection; a beloved person
- DATE
- Present-day German
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Middle High German / Indo-European
liebe
favor, affection, love
- DATE
- Middle High German
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
038
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 4
resolvedprobableexact word
Is German lieb a shortened form of Liebe?
No. The adjective descends through Middle High German liep and Old High German liob. The noun Liebe continues a related abstract-noun formation analyzed as deadjectival within the older family.
resolvedprobableword prefix
Are German Liebe and English love the same immediate inherited noun?
No. Their histories converge deeper in the desire-and-care family, but Old High German liubî is analyzed through Germanic *leubīn while Old English lufu follows the *lubō branch.
openproposedposition text
Do Celtic cais and Greek κῆδος prove that love and hate share one root?
No. They belong to a disputed wider comparison. Middle Irish cais carries a striking love-and-hatred field, but that does not make German Liebe an ancestor or cognate of Hass.
resolvedprobableposition text
Did Dutch lief come from English love?
No. Dutch lief is an inherited Germanic adjective cognate with forms including Gothic liufs and German lieb; English love is a separate noun descendant in the same wider family.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 4
RANK 198GRADE A-exact ranked word
The adjective came before the modern noun shape.
German lieb descends through Middle High German liep and Old High German liob. Liebe is an abstract noun within the same older family, not the source from which lieb was clipped.
RANK 195GRADE A-ranked-word prefix
German and English took different noun roads to love.
German Liebe follows Old High German liubî and reconstructed *leubīn; English love follows Old English lufu and *lubō. The graph joins them only at the deeper desire-and-care root.
RANK 58GRADE A-ranked reveal
Medieval Hass could be friendly competition.
Grimm’s DWB quotes Erec 2059: riders pursue a hawking contest, friuntlîchen striten, and share a bescheiden haʒ. The dictionary interprets this as rivalry in pursuing a goal. Modern Duden instead centers intense aversion and hostility. The contrast reveals a real historical side meaning without claiming that every medieval use was friendly or that Liebe and Hass share ancestry.
RANK 199GRADE A-ranked reveal
Dutch lief is love’s adjective cousin, not its child.
Dutch lief belongs with Gothic liufs and German lieb in the inherited dear-or-beloved adjective branch. English love is a separate noun route in the same deeper family.
042
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
052
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus record
Old High German historical-form record for liob reported by Duden
liob / lieb / Old High German period
lieb — Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunftreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus record
Love turning into hate
Hass / Hass / contemporary dictionary example, source-reported
Duden — Hasswitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗06
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.