love-layn.
/ˈlʌvleɪ/, U.S. /ˈləvˌleɪ/ Chiefly poetic (now rare).
A love song.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > amorous love > [noun] > tale or song of love > love-song
love songa1350
love-layc1450
love dittya1586
society > leisure > the arts > music > type of music > vocal music > types of song > [noun] > love-song
ronc1225
love songa1350
love-layc1450
Liebestod1889
torch song1927
c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) 6 (MED) And sum has langing of lufe lays to herken.
1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene ii. vi. 260 With a loue lay she thus him sweetly charmd.
1600 E. Fairfax tr. T. Tasso Godfrey of Bulloigne xvi. xiii. 283 A woondrous bird..That in plaine speech sung louelaies loud and shrill.
1762 J. Langhorne Viceroy 4 Arcadian blythe,..Piping thy love lays wild.
a1788 W. J. Mickle Poems (1794) xlix Woeful she tun'd her love-lay.
1830 Ld. Tennyson Dualisms in Poems 145 Two bees..Hum a lovelay to the westwind at noontide.
1856 R. A. Vaughan Hours with Mystics (1860) I. 258 These love-lays he interspersed with riddles and rhyming proverbs.
1908 W. E. Hunter Nightingale & Other Poems 57 For her dear love love-lays awoke the morn.
1929 Van Wert (Ohio) Daily Bull. 28 Mar. 7/3 The love lays which hold such a big place in all Arab melodies.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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