love-hate

English

WOTD – 13 February 2021

Etymology

The adjective is a calque of German Liebe-Hass (now more commonly Hassliebe (“love-hate relationship”)), from Liebe (“love; relationship of love”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“to love”)) + Hass (“hate; hatred”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂d- (“anger; hatred”)).

The verb is derived from the adjective.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˌlʌvˈheɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt

Adjective

love-hate (not comparable)

1. (originally psychoanalysis) Of a relationship: involving feelings of both love and hate, often simultaneously.
   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Varren Codex entry:

     The krogan have had a love-hate relationship with varren for millennia, alternately fighting them for territory and embracing them as treasured companions.

   • 2013 June 4, Dwight Garner, “A Literary Mind, Under the Spell of Drugs and a MacBook”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     I loathe reviews in which a critic claims to have love-hate feelings about a work of art. It’s a way of having no opinion at all. But I love and hate “Taipei.”

   • 2018 November 14, Jesse Hassenger, “Disney Goes Viral with an Ambitious, Overstuffed Wreck-It Ralph Sequel”, in The A.V. Club‎^[2], archived from the original on 21 November 2019:

     Still, the movie [Ralph Breaks the Internet] manages to locate some gentle satire in our culture's love-hate relationship with the internet. At one point, Ralph must attain a certain level of viral popularity, assisted by the BuzzFeed-esque content guru Yesss (Taraji P. Henson), and the movie is savvy about how accidental spikes in fame can turn into cynical algorithm manipulation.

Derived terms

• love-hatred

Translations

involving feelings of both love and hate, often simultaneously

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 愛恨交加／爱恨交加 (àihènjiāojiā), 愛恨交織／爱恨交织 (àihènjiāozhī)

• Finnish: viha-rakkaus- (see viha-rakkaussuhde)
• French: d’amour-haine (fr)
• German: hassliebend
• Italian: odiosamato
• Japanese: 愛憎 (ja) (あいぞう, aizō)

Verb

love-hate (third-person singular simple present love-hates, present participle love-hating, simple past and past participle love-hated)

1. (transitive) To feel both love and hate (for someone or something), often simultaneously.
   • 2022, Jordan Castro, The Novelist‎^[3], Catapult, →ISBN:

     […] Eric got to act out his resentment while also hating himself, really love-hating himself, and he got to do it while masquerading as a warrior for the less fortunate!

Translations

to feel both love and hate (for someone or something), often simultaneously

• French: détestaimer (rare)
• German: hasslieben

See also

• frenemy
• on-again, off-again

Further reading

• love–hate relationship on Wikipedia.Wikipedia