Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2010

Note how *other* verbs change their meaning:

laufen/fahren (go) -> sich verlaufen/verfahren (lose one's way)
sprechen (speak) -> sich versprechen (misspeak, commit a slip of the tongue)
schreiben (write) -> sich verschreiben (make a spelling mistake)
schätzen (estimate) -> sich verschätzen (miscalculate, misjudge a quantity)

And now:

lieben (love) -> sich verlieben (fall in love)

This does not mean that "sich verlieben" has a connotaton of making an error.

On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:05:12 +0100, Bertel Lund Hansen
<splitteminebramsejl@lundhansen.dk> wrote in
<news:4milk5ldamoqs79goktd6csqeu45dej9fu@news.stofanet.dk>
in alt.usage.english,sci.lang:

I believe that in Icelandic it's <verða ástfanginn>,
literally 'become love-captured'.

Brian

Bertel Lund Hansen:

No: <forelska>/<-et>, Sw: <förelskad>

I think <kär> is more common than <förälskad> in Swedish, but the
construct is the same.

Huh? 'Vi blir forelska' "We become forloved"

The two other _continental_ Nordic languages. It does. All of it.

Similarly, "syrthio mewn cariad" (or "cwympo.... " according to
region) is common in modern Welsh, but is clearly an Anglicism. (I saw
it once, in a book that can't have been that old, accompanied by
'chwedl y Sais' ("as the English say") showing that the author at
least felt of it as marginal to the language or a recent innovation.

And contrarily, when people have a "falling out", did it come as an
opposite to "falling in love"?
(Of course, I never heard of a [noun]"falling in" beyond "falling in
with bad company".)

"Where Love Has Gone (old song)", and "When a lovely flame dies" are
ways to say "falling out of love".  Is it so with those other
languages?

Don't forget "falling pregnant". Misfortunes often come in threes.

To happen or occur, subject to an assorted set of usages and
constructions, is a respectable meaning of the verb "fall". And as it
fell out, some skaters fell in, when the ice broke recently.
Variation: What will befall us tomorrow?

It seems plausible that falling in love means happening onto a state
of love, as much as tumbling into the abyss of love, even if it does
take us "head over heels".
--
franzi

Czech was mentioned in the original question, in that language
you can "become-ill" (one word) or "fall into illness" (three words).

pjk

Probably not, because, while "falling in love" is common, I believe
"falling ill" is relatively rare in AmE.

To some of our ears a sentence "He began to become in love with her"
might sound odd "He in love comes" might sound even stranger but is
close to the Dutch liefde worden;
But in Flemish,  "he is falling in love" would be much less common,
than "He's crazy for ..."

Latvians do not *fall* in love.  They become enamored, or something like
that.

Yes.  Latvian does.

Vinny Burgoo skrev:

Danish does. Forelskelse (being in love) is the feeling that
makes a person interested in another. It may come suddenly and
may be evasive. Kærlighed (love) is a feeling that grows with
time and effort. We do talk about "kærlighed ved første blik"
(love at first sight), but it really is 'only' forelskelse -
though I will not entirely rule out that real love in rare cases
may arise quickly.

Not exactly love as we discuss it here, but close:

My sister and her husband visited France once when their younger
boy was about 8 years old. He spoke no French at all. They were
camping, and at the same site a French couple had also camped.
They had a boy about the same age as my nephew, and the two boys
got together the minute saw each other, and all the time they
were awake,. they would be together holding hands much of the
time. They could not talk to each other since they had no common
language, but where one went, the other would follow. They were
both devastated when they had to part.

I do not have my perception of love from women's magazines.

The G-spot - is that where the G-string is attached?

"In love" is a condition that typically lasts about 18 months, though it
can persist for any period from 24 hours to 4 years. "Love" is something
that comes after the "in love" period is over if the two people stay
together long enough.