No love lost...

Posted by ESC on February 16, 2002

In Reply to: There's no love lost... posted by Steve on February 16, 2002

: Wondering about the origin and meaning of, "There's no love lost [between those two people]."

NO LOVE LOST - "They don't like each other. For a while, several centuries ago, this phrase carried two opposing meanings, the one now current, and the thought of mutual affection. In the second, and defunct, sense of the phrase, the image was as of love shared in a common vessel: when affection was mutual, none of the love in the vessel was lost. An example is in 'Faire Em,' a fraudulent Shakespeare published in 1592: 'Nor was there any loue between vs lost. But I held in the same in high regard.' In the other sense, while love is possessed by two people, neither is losing any of it over the other. A translation in 1620 of 'Don Quixote offers this passage: 'There's no love lost,' quote Sancho, 'for she speaks ill of me too when she list.'" From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Wings Books, Originally New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985).