beloved

Etymology

It is formed from English belove + -ed,^[2][3][4] as biloved, the past participle of biloven (“to please; to love”).^[5][6][7] That verb is made up of bi- and loven (“to love”),^[6][7][8] and the OED compares Old Frisian biliāvia (“to be pleasing”), Middle Low German belēven (“to love, to like”) and German belieben (“to like, to favour”).^[2] Weekley also compares beliebt.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Loved, dearly loved: before 1375, in William of Palerne: “So wel was william bi-loued wiþ riche & wiþ pore”.^[5][2] Etymonline dates the adjective to the late 14th century,^[8] and the Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 14th century.^[7] The OED adds that a surname cited under well-beloved implies earlier use.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb belove first meant "to please" (from about 1225) and "to be pleased with" (about 1275), and only from about 1330 "to love",^[2] so the Middle English participle could mean no more than liked or admired, as well as loved; it was common in salutations.^[5] Chaucer used it 15 times and Gower 10.^[10] The noun, a person who is dearly loved, followed about 1430, in N. Love's Mirror;^[2] Etymonline and the Merriam-Webster Unabridged date it only to the 1520s and 1526, Etymonline placing it first in biblical language.^[8][7] A short-lived noun belove, in the same sense, lasted from 1534 to 1568.^[2] By the 18th century the participle was far commoner than the verb: Johnson (1755) observed that one says "you are much beloved by me, but not, I belove you".^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – the verb belove, to please.^[2][5]
• c. 1330 – the same verb in the sense "to love".^[2]
• before 1375 – adjective, dearly loved.^[2][5]
• c. 1430 – noun, a person who is dearly loved.^[2] Etymonline dates the noun to the 1520s,^[8] and the Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1526.^[7]
• 1534 – the noun belove, a loved one (obsolete by 1568).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Dear to the heart; dearly loved: their beloved old spaniel.^[12][7][2]
2. Loved, in the passive construction with by or of: The old doctor was beloved by the whole valley.^[7][2]

Noun

1. A person who is dearly loved, such as a wife, husband or sweetheart; often with a possessive: her beloved.^{[12][7][2][3]}
2. Loved people as a class.^[2]

Word family

• unbeloved
• well-beloved

Related words

• belove
• love

Usage notes

The Shorter Oxford gives the three-syllable form, with a sounded ending, as the usual one and the two-syllable form as less usual.^[3] The Merriam-Webster Unabridged puts the two-syllable form first for the passive participle and the three-syllable form first for the noun.^[7] The OED suggests that the sounded ending may have been preserved by the word's frequent use in poetry and perhaps in the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins