Have you ever seen people so in love that they seem inseparable? Do you love your partner or kids more than life itself? Perhaps the feeling is so strong it feels like death to be apart. If so, then the idiom love to death is a great way to explain these complex emotions. This post unpacks the meaning and origin of this expression.
Meaning
The phrase love to death, or I love you to death means that a person has an intense amount of affection. The phrase often is used to convey that the person who holds those feelings may even perish due to their strength. Most often the phrase is spoken by teenagers, or those freshly entering a relationship. It is also used between older couples who have spent the bulk of their lives together.
While the phrase is not intended to be literal, it can be used to explain the level of adoration you have for another person. The technical meaning of the phrase is that a person is pledging to love the other until their death. The entire premise of the phrase means that you or someone referring to you has a deep level of attachment that is as strong as life itself.
Example Usage
“My father always said that he loves my mother to death, and when she passed, he followed shortly after”.
“The dedication that they showed during their marriage proves that they loved each other to death”.
“Sometimes I wonder how it would feel to be loved to death, is it intoxicating or stifling?”
“It’s rather grotesque to see that the one who claimed to love her to death is charged with her murder”.
Origin
The phrase love to death has been around for a while, but its exact origin is unknown. There are many variations of the phrase such as; I'll love you until I die, I love you to death, I will love you unto death, and so on. The emotion behind the phrase is that the love will last until the end of life, or beyond.
There is some speculation that it was derived from till death do us part. This phrase first came about in 1549 in The Book of Common Prayer which was released in England. The prayer book was released after King Henry broke from the Roman church. It detailed prayers to be used during certain ceremonies such as marriages, baptisms, and communions. The phrase till death does us part was used for marriages, which typically are linked with lifelong love. As a married couple pledges to be together until death, it is believed the phrase love to death came from this initial saying.
Phrases Similar to Love to Death
- Carry a torch
- Be crazy about
- Love intensely
- Be smitten
- Entirely devoted
- Love to the moon and back
- Be stuck on
Phrases Opposite to Love to Death
- Despise
- Hate with a passion
- Indifferent
- Disagree with
- To loathe
- Dislike
What is the Correct Saying?
- The proper saying is – to love to death.
Ways People May Incorrectly Say Love to Death
- Some ways that love to death is used incorrectly are:
- You always love to death the people you hate the most.
- I am so tired of James, I love him to death and wish he would leave me alone.
Acceptable Ways to Phrase Love to Death
Some ways that love to death is used correctly are:
- I love my dog to death, I would be devastated if anything happened to him.
- Do you know that sick feeling you get when you have someone you love to death who doesn’t feel the same way?
- Saying that you are loved to death is not literal, it just means that I really care for you a lot, more than life itself.
- My dad promised me that he loves me to death even though he doesn’t give in to my demands.