EELORTUV (2)

Word of the Week

A feature wherein TileHead highlights a word that is is especially interesting or unusual (and, incidentally, useful in Scrabble play):

EELORTUV (2)

(unscramble the letters to form this week's word...)

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(answer below, after a little more spoiler space....)

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This week's word is...

TRUELOVE n. pl. -S

• Definition: a faithful lover; a sweetheart; a beloved

• Front hooks: (none)
• Back hooks: -S
• Anagrams: REVOLUTE (adj. rolled backward or downward)
• Longer extensions: (none)
• Wraparounds: (none)
• Other Spellings: (none)
• Related Forms: (none)

TileHead says:

TRUELOVE is a very old word, having been recorded as treowlufu in Old English writings and and as trewe loue (and other variations) in Middle English writing from the 1300s.  Indeed, it has survived through the ages with a similar meaning, seemingly as faithful and enduring as the concept it describes.

Lo this is he that with his flaterye
Bytraised hath & don hire vilenye
That was his trewe loue in thought & dede.
(Modern translation:
Lo this is he that with his flattery
Betrayed hath and done her villainy
That was his truelove in thought and deed.)
– Geoffrey Chaucer, "Legend of Good Women" (c. 1385)

Fly, Lady-Bird, North, South, or East, or West,
Fly where the Man is found that I love best.
He leaves my hand, see to the West he's flown,
To call my true-love from the faithless town.
– John Gay, "Thursday: Or, The Spell" (1720)

I am a lady young in beauty waiting
Until my truelove comes, and then we kiss.
– John Crowe Ransom, "Piazza Piece" (1924)

Happy Valentine's Day!