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012
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
nounexact headword
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 ↗adjectivecontrarian claim
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 ↗022
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
036
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 3
resolvedprobableexact word
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
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.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 3
RANK 195GRADE A-exact ranked word
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 198GRADE A-ranked reveal
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.
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BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
051
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
06
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