to make love

Originally meaning to date or court somebody with serious intent. Eventually its meaning expanded to include the actions that couples would partake in while dating in this manner. If you are making love to somebody, it means you truly love them and want to spend the rest of your life with them. Making love can be a small action, it can be giving your coat to your partner on a cold night, or giving them a sincere compliment when they’re feeling down. It can be hugging them from behind in the morning while they make coffee, or even something as innocuous as holding hands in a movie. In the 1950s, it might be common for a young teen to tell her friends about her date and say something along the lines of: “We made love in the theatre last night!” This would be understood to mean anything from hand holding to kissing to affectionate words. The modern definition of making love (to have sexual intercourse) is a slang usage of the phrase that was likely popularized in the 1960s by the slogan “make love, not war”. However some vestiges of the original meaning still remain. People usually will not say they made love with somebody unless they felt a deeper connection with them, as there are a bevy of other terms which are used for casual encounters. In this way, making love still implies courtly romance, as was its original intent, and it is often reserved for serious relationships. Yet it can apply to all the scenarios outlined above as well. All are valid examples of making love.