Word for Wednesday: Romance

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Our Word for Wednesday theme for February is Valentine’s Day. 

Originally a Christian feast day for St. Valentine, Valentine’s Day in now celebrated all over the world on February 14th. The day is a dedication to all things love and romance. 

The word Valentine has been used since the fifteenth century to describe the person one chooses to spend Valentine’s Day with. It was first used to describe a card or letter sent on Valentine’s Day in 1824. 

So far, we’ve looked at the words Cupid and sweetheart. This week’s word is romance. 

Romance refers to the exciting and mysterious feelings associated with love. The word might also be used to describe a relationship between two lovers or the act of courting someone.  

The word romance has been used since around 1300 to describe adventure stories, written or told in verse, about knights and heroes. Its meaning extended to include love stories by the 1660s and was first used to mean ‘love affair’ in 1916.

Romance comes from the Old French ‘romanz’ meaning ‘verse narrative’, from the Vulgar Latin ‘romanice ’ meaning ‘to write in a Romance language’, from ‘Romanicus’ meaning ‘in the Roman style’. 


16 Feb 2022
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Teacher, High School, UK