Old Emotions

In Greek, as you're probably aware, there are multiple words in place of the single verb we English-speakers use when we're talking about love.  Which is really fantastic and, I imagine, cuts down on those awkwardly ambiguous conversations like the one in which so-and-so supposedly hooked up with so-and-so and what does that even mean?  (Although I guess, if we're continuing along that train of thought, so-and-so number one would probably have been an old politician, while so-and-so number two would probably have been a young boy...and so what we end up with is simply replacing one awkward situation for another.)

Regardless. 

We've got the undervalued and overlooked philia, which implies the virtuous love that accompanies loyalty and friendship.  Then there's agápe, a sense of deep, true, stable affection and regard - in the New Testament, this is a kind of sacrificial love.  And don't forget bad-boy éros...that's sexy, passionate love, although Plato also said it also had to do with a more general spiritual appreciation of beauty.  Lastly, storge, which tends to be left off these sorts of lists, and seems to be used exclusively within the family to mean affection, tolerance, and acceptance.

I was wondering, though, if Latin had a similar subdivision of the sentiment commonly known as love.  Well...not really, as it turns out.  The Latin distinction is basically equivalent, as near as I can tell, to the English distinction between 'like' and 'love'...although, upon further reflection, this isn't totally surprising, given that Hellenic (Greek) and Italic (Latin) come off different branches of the Proto-Indo-European language tree.