cupboard love
informal noun phrase

- love shown by someone, typically a child, in order to get something that they want, such as food (Cambridge Dictionary)

- a show of love inspired only by some selfish or greedy motive (Collins Dictionary)

- a personal attachment that appears to be motivated by love but in fact stems from the hope of gain (Dictionary_dot_com)

- insincere love professed for the sake of gain (Merriam-Webster)

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ORIGIN

The phrase cupboard love originated in the mid 1700s and derives from the way a cat shows superficial love for a person who feeds it,… or for the cupboard that holds its food.

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The Story of Love

The word love (in its noun form) has a long and convoluted history. Dating back to the Proto-Indo-European word leubh, meaning care or desire, it later evolved into the Latin lubet, which went on further to become libet (which is the father of the word libido).

Following Latin, the word spread to Germanic where it steadily evolved into four forms  lubo, liube, liebe, and lob,… all of which had the modern meaning,… except for liube.

Liube went through a phrase where it was referred to as “joy”,… this eventually phased into Old English as lufu, before finally it became the word love.

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LOVELY PHRASES

-  not for love or money = not under any circumstances or conditions; no matter what happens

-  for the love of Mike (or Pete) = a mild expression of shock, exasperation, annoyance, frustration, or anger, with “Mike” or “ Pete” being a euphemistic substitution for “God”

-  a labour of love = hard work that is done for pleasure rather than for money

-  puppy love = a state of short-lived infatuation or romantic attraction among children or adolescents

-  love bomb(s) = a profuse or intense display or declaration of love or affection (often used in the plural)

-  love goggles = the inability to see any flaws in one’s beloved

-  to love (someone or something) to death = to totally adore (someone or something)

-  a love nest = a place where two people meet secretly to have a romantic affair

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“Our cat is a real queen of CUPBOARD LOVE - after feeding she’ll lose interest in me for hours at a time.”

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THANKS to Jacky for suggesting today’s OWAD.

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

Paul Smith