Forms: 1 tréowlufu, 4–5 trulofe, 4–6 trewelove, trewlove, 5 treulofe, trew-luf, -lufe, pl. -luffes, treue loue, 6 tru-, treulove, 6–8 truelove, 6– true love, 7– truelove. [f. OE. tréowe, TRUE + lufu, LOVE.]
1. Faithful love. Usually as two words (see TRUE a. 1 b), exc. attrib. (see 5).
a. 800. Cynewulf, Christ, 538. Wæs seo treow lufu, hat æt heortan.
1813. Scott, Trierm., II. xvii. To plead their right, and true-love plight.
2. A faithful lover; one whose love is pledged; a sweetheart, beloved.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 2542 (Phillis). This is he … That was his trewe loue In thought & dede.
c. 1460. Quia amore langueo, 17, in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 151. I am treulove that fals was neuer, My sistur, mannys soule, I loued hyr thus.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, Poems (Grosart), II. 128. My true-love hath my heart, and I haue his.
? 16[?]. Friar of Orders Gray. I pray thee, tell to me If ever at yon holy shrine My true love thou didst see.
? 17[?]. Song ‘Wala, wala, up the bank’ (Jam.). I leant my back unto an aik, I thought it was a trusty tree; But first it bow’d, and syne it brak, And sae did my true-love to me.
1871. Palgrave, Lyr. Poems, 73. My one true-love, My only.
† 3. An ornament or figure symbolic of true love; a TRUE-LOVE KNOT. Obs.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 612. Tortors & trulofez entayled so þyk.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., 354 (Thornton MS.). His mantylle … Trofelyte and trauerste wythe trewloues in trete.
1509. Will (MS. Prerog. Crt. Canterb.). Another standing Cupe gilt and enameled wt blew Trulovys in the botom.
a. 1550. Image Hypocr., I. 404, in Skelton’s Wks. (1843), II. 419/1. Gay gloves … Wroughte with true loves.
1575. Laneham, Lett. (1871), 38. His napkin, edged with a blu lace, & marked with a trulooue, a hart, and A.D. for Damian.
4. A name for the Herb Paris (Paris quadrifolia), the whorl of four leaves with the single flower or berry in the midst suggesting the figure of a true-love knot. Also † herb true-love, true-love flower, † true-love grass, four-leaved clover. Also, † the North American genus Trillium (obs.).
13[?]. Test. Christi, 126 (Vernon MS.), in Herrig’s Archiv, LXXIX. 428. A foure-leued gras … Whon þeose four leues togeder ben set A trewe-loue men clepen hit.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 3692. Vnder his tonge a trewe loue he beer For ther-by wende he to ben gracious.
c. 1400. Emare, 125. Portrayed þey wer wyth trewe-loue-flour.
1448. Paston Lett., IV. 17. Floweris of sylver on the bukkelis made of iiij. lyke a trewlove.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. v. 10. The seede [of Hound’s-tongue] is flat and rough, three or foure together like to a trueloue, or foure leaued grasse.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. lxxxv. § 6. 329. One Berrie is also called herbe Trueloue, and herbe Paris.
a. 1674. ? Herrick, Fairie Kings Diet, 4. The outside of his doublet was Made of the foure-leaued trueloue grass.
1760. Lee, Introd. Bot., Tab. i. Trillium, Herb Truelove of Canada.
1838. Mary Howitt, Birds & Fl., Summer Woods, iv. There grows the four-leaved plant, ‘true love,’ In some dusk woodland spot.
5. attrib. (usually in sense 1; in quot. c. 1430, in sense 3). See also sense 4, and next.
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 173. Of trewloue werk wroght ful wele.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., V. i. 10. And wash him fresh againe with true-loue Teares. Ibid. (1602), Ham., IV. v. 39. Which bewept to the graue did go, With true-loue showres.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxv. ‘A sincere weel-wisher of mine, sir.’… ‘O, I understand,’…—‘a true-love affair.’
