Disturbing Realisation

[anarchist_nomad]

Orange.

Tangerine.

Clementine.

Satsuma.

Mandarin.

Tangelo.

Kumquat.

Minneola.

Ugli.

I think that the English language contains more words for describing and distinguishing different types of small orange citrus fruits than it does for describing and distinguishing different types of love...

Comments

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

When I was a child, my family had the tradition of putting an orange or tangerine in the toe of each Xmas stocking. I was told it had to do with the relative unavailability of fresh fruit in midwinter, in times past, so that a tangerine or orange was a relatively precious gift. Of course, I found out much later that it was yet another "Christmas" custom relating to the return of the Sun, because of the fruit's sunny color and its origin in sunnier lands. (All very good, except that, even as a child, I didn't like fruit.)

I agree with gyades, though - there are plenty of words for love, in every shade of meaning of the concept. Starting with the ancient Greek, you've got eros, philia, agapē, storge, xenia, and thelema. And even in our magnificent mongrel of a language, as gyades points out, we have love, lust, limerence, like, longing, (enough with the Ls, already!) want, desire, affection, passion, caring, fondness, pining, charity, benevolence, esteem, worship, admiration...

And I suppose that someone who loves oranges would be a narantophile.