110 Fun Facts About Love

Which Beatles song did the band perform on Our World, the first live global satellite TV link-up, in 1967?

All You Need Is Love answered a request for a message that people in every country could understand; the Beatles played it live from Abbey Road with Mick Jagger among the friends singing along.

Cupid is often portrayed as the son of the goddess Venus and which god?

Mars and Venus as Cupid's parents made a tidy allegory of Love and War, but ancient writers never settled it: Cicero counted three Cupids, only one of them a son of Mars.

In Ovid's Metamorphoses, what does Cupid's lead-tipped arrow cause?

Aversion is what the lead brings: Cupid shoots Apollo with the gold arrow and Daphne with the lead one, so she flees him and ends up turned into a laurel tree.

Which hormone, released during hugging, childbirth and sex, is popularly nicknamed the 'love hormone'?

Oxytocin is one of the few hormones that runs on positive feedback: each release prompts more, which is why labour contractions keep building until the baby is born.

Anthropologist Helen Fisher split love into three brain systems: lust, attachment and which other?

Attraction is Fisher's name for the giddy early stage; when she scanned the brains of people newly in love, a dopamine-rich reward area lit up at a photo of the beloved.

Robert Sternberg's 'triangular theory' says love has three components: intimacy, passion and what?

Commitment, for Sternberg, has two halves that can come apart: deciding you love someone, and resolving to keep that love going. With no intimacy or passion beside it, he called the result 'empty love'.

In a famous 1995 Swiss experiment, women rated men's body odour by sniffing which item?

T-shirts worn for two nights gave a rare case of opposites pulling together: the women tended to prefer the scent of men whose immune-system genes differed from their own.

Which word did Dorothy Tennov coin for the obsessive, madly-in-love state when reciprocation is uncertain?

Limerence has no roots at all: Tennov, who interviewed more than 500 people about being in love, said she picked the word simply because it looks nice.

Which ancient Greek word for love describes friendship or affectionate regard between equals?

Philia mattered so much to Aristotle that he gave it two whole books of his Nicomachean Ethics; nobody, he wrote, would choose to live without friends, whatever else they had.

In Greek, which word names the natural affection between parents and children?

Storge is the 'Affection' C. S. Lewis treats first of his Four Loves: a humble love, he wrote, that grows out of familiarity with the people we happen to be thrown together with.

The Greek 'xenia' is a form of love or friendship directed at whom?

Guests and strangers were under the protection of Zeus Xenios; in the Odyssey the suitors mock and strike Odysseus when he turns up disguised as a beggar, and he kills them all.

The 'honeymoon' originally referred to what?

The weeks after the wedding were the honeymoon from the 1540s, and the word may have carried a wry warning: like the moon, a new couple's sweetness would soon wane. The trip came centuries later.

What Latin name is given to the old belief in a vein running from the ring finger to the heart?

Vena amoris, the 'vein of love', is a reason often given for wearing a wedding ring on that finger; the Roman writer Aulus Gellius had already reported the idea, as a fine nerve leading to the heart.

In ancient Rome, where gold rings were kept for public wear, a betrothed woman was sent a plain ring of what?

Iron was what Romans wore at home: Pliny the Elder wrote that even men honoured with gold rings put them on only in public, and that brides-to-be were still sent an iron ring with no stone.

Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who gave the first well-documented diamond engagement ring in 1477, belonged to which dynasty?

Habsburg heir Maximilian gave the ring to Mary of Burgundy, and the match paid off handsomely: it brought the Netherlands under his family's control.

Which company's 'A Diamond Is Forever' ads made diamond engagement rings the American norm?

De Beers hired the agency N. W. Ayer in the 1930s, when only about one engagement ring in ten held a diamond; its copywriter Frances Gerety wrote the famous line in 1947.

At the end of a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony, what does the groom crush under his foot?

A glass is stamped on to end the ceremony, most often explained as a reminder of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem even at a moment of joy; the guests answer with 'Mazel tov!'

Which London cathedral hosted Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer's 1981 wedding?

St Paul's Cathedral was chosen over Westminster Abbey, the more traditional church for a royal wedding; a congregation of 3,500 filled it, and an estimated 750 million people watched on television.

The bridal rhyme 'Something old, something new' ends with which coin?

Sixpence in her shoe is the rhyme's last line; by tradition the bride's father slips the silver coin into her left shoe to bring the couple luck.

Traditionally, which material is the gift for a first wedding anniversary?

Paper marks the first year, wood the fifth and tin the tenth, but the grand occasions are the silver and golden weddings: in Germany a couple reaching fifty years was by custom presented with a golden wreath.

Which Mughal emperor built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal?

Shah Jahan began it after Mumtaz Mahal died in childbirth in 1631; deposed and confined by their son Aurangzeb in 1658, he was finally laid to rest beside her.

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona and which other Italian city?

Mantua is where Romeo is banished for killing Tybalt, and where the false news of Juliet's death reaches him before Friar Laurence's letter can.

Which Babylonian couple from Ovid, whispering through a cracked wall, inspired Romeo and Juliet?

Pyramus and Thisbe's blood is said to have stained the white mulberry dark for ever; Shakespeare also played their story for laughs in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In the medieval legend, what do Tristan and Iseult share on the voyage from Ireland that seals their fate?

A love potion brewed by Iseult's mother for her daughter and King Mark of Cornwall is drunk instead by Iseult and Tristan, the nephew sent to fetch her; in one early version it wears off after three years.

In the classic Arabic love story of Layla, the poet Qays earns the nickname Majnun, meaning what?

Crazy, literally 'possessed by jinn', is what his tribe called Qays once his obsession with Layla took hold; Eric Clapton took her name for his 1970 song after reading the tale.

Mark Antony left his wife, the sister of which rival, for Cleopatra?

Octavian's sister Octavia was divorced by Antony before her brother went to war on the couple; after both were dead, she raised his three children by Cleopatra alongside her own.

The medieval literary idea of a knight performing deeds for an idealised lady is called what?

Courtly love was barely a medieval phrase: the name caught on only after the French scholar Gaston Paris wrote of 'amour courtois' in 1883, while the troubadours themselves sang of fin'amor.

Which three-book manual on seduction by the Roman poet Ovid may have helped get him exiled to the Black Sea?

Ars Amatoria, 'The Art of Love', is usually taken to be the poem Ovid meant when he blamed his banishment on 'a poem and a mistake'; he never said what the mistake was.

The Kama Sutra, the ancient Indian guide to love attributed to Vatsyayana, was composed in which language?

Sanskrit is the language of the Kama Sutra, and its reputation misleads: only a portion deals with sex, while much of the rest is advice on courtship and living well.

Among the Romans' several words for a kiss, the suavium was the kiss for whom?

Lovers shared the suavium, a kiss of passion named from the Latin for 'sweet'; it was the rival word basium that lived on, as Italian bacio, Spanish beso and French baiser.

The scientific study of kissing is called what?

Philematology, from the Greek philema for 'a kiss', still has plenty to explain: a 2015 survey of 168 cultures found couples kissing romantically in fewer than half of them.

Clay tablets put the earliest written record of romantic kissing at about 2500 BCE in which ancient land?

Mesopotamia's tablets mention lip kissing from about 2500 BCE, a thousand years before the Indian text long credited as the first record; a 2023 study in Science made the case, noting early evidence from Egypt too.

Whitney Houston's hit 'I Will Always Love You' was written and first recorded by which country singer?

Dolly Parton wrote it in 1973 as a farewell to Porter Wagoner, the TV partner she was leaving, and later refused to let Elvis Presley record it when his camp demanded a share of the publishing rights.

Which small North American rodent is famous among scientists for forming lifelong pair bonds?

The prairie vole owes its fidelity partly to the hormone vasopressin: when scientists gave its solitary cousin the meadow vole extra vasopressin receptors, those males began to prefer one partner too.

In seahorses, which parent carries the fertilised eggs in a brood pouch until they hatch?

The male receives the female's eggs in his pouch during mating, then incubates and nourishes them until he gives birth to tiny, fully formed young: a pregnancy in reverse.

Which North American bird of prey, usually paired for life, courts by locking talons in mid-air and cartwheeling towards the ground?

Bald eagle pairs lock talons high up and spin earthwards in what is called the cartwheel display, letting go only just before they would hit the ground.

Wisdom, the oldest known wild bird as of 2025, is a Laysan albatross first banded in 1956 on which Pacific atoll?

Midway Atoll is where biologist Chandler Robbins banded her in 1956, when she was already old enough to be sitting on an egg; he died in 2017 aged 98, and she has outlived him.

Albatross pairs form bonds over several years using what?

Ritualised dances of bowing, head-swinging and pointing the bill skyward are how young albatrosses choose a mate, a courtship that takes years; the pair then stays together for life.

Which Paris bridge lost a section of railing in 2014 under the weight of tourists' love padlocks?

Pont des Arts had its railings give way under the load in 2014; a year later the city cut away close to a million padlocks, about 45 tonnes of them.

The love-lock custom is traced to a WWI-era story about a schoolmistress named Nada in which country?

Serbia's spa town of Vrnjačka Banja has the bridge where Nada and her officer Relja used to meet; after he left her for a woman in Greece, local girls began fixing padlocks to its railings to keep their own loves safe.

The Wall of Love, where 'I love you' is written in 250 languages, stands in which hilltop district of Paris?

Montmartre's wall began as a collection: Frédéric Baron asked his brother, then his neighbours, to write the phrase in their own language, and calligrapher Claire Kito assembled them for its enamelled lava tiles.

Which Scottish poet wrote that his love is 'like a red, red rose that's newly sprung in June'?

Robert Burns wrote the song in 1794, drawing on traditional verses; asked in 2008 to name the lyric that had the greatest impact on his life, Bob Dylan chose it.

A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas is famous for offering vows through what?

Sinatra, Judy Garland, Michael Jordan, Britney Spears and Bruce Willis and Demi Moore all married under Charolette Richards's roof.

Folk tradition in Scotland, Ireland, England and Finland lets women propose marriage on which day?

Leap day proposals came with a price for saying no: tradition expected the man to buy the woman gloves or a silk gown, and in Finland the fabric for a skirt.

Which British monarch proposed to her future husband, rather than the other way round?

Queen Victoria proposed to her cousin Albert in October 1839, five days after he arrived at Windsor; their uncle Leopold, king of the Belgians, had long been promoting the match.

Throwing rice at newlyweds symbolises what?

Prosperity and fertility are what the grains stand for, and the warning that they kill birds is a myth: wild ducks and geese fatten up on rice fields every winter.

The 1989 film When Harry Met Sally... asks which question?

'Can men and women ever just be friends?' is the film's running argument; Nora Ephron modelled Harry on her interviews with director Rob Reiner, whose mother Estelle delivers the deli scene's line, 'I'll have what she's having.'

Which 2004 romance, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, was based on a Nicholas Sparks novel?

The Notebook was Sparks's first published novel, and he took its devoted couple from life: his wife's grandparents, who had spent more than 60 years together.

The 1942 romance Casablanca was based on an unproduced stage play with what title?

Everybody Comes to Rick's grew out of Murray Burnett's 1938 trip to Nazi-occupied Vienna; he and Joan Alison never saw it staged before Warner Bros. bought it for a record $20,000.

Which screen romance became the first billion-dollar hit in box-office history?

Titanic was the first film to reach the billion-dollar mark and stayed the highest-grossing ever until its own director, James Cameron, overtook it with Avatar.

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was written under what working title?

First Impressions got nowhere at first: in 1797 Austen's father offered it to a London publisher, who declined. Reworked and retitled, it finally appeared, anonymously, in 1813.

In Dirty Dancing, Baby falls for dance instructor Johnny Castle at a 1960s summer resort in which mountains?

The Catskills, heart of the 'Borscht Belt' of Jewish resorts, were where screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein spent her own girlhood summers, though the film was shot at lakes in Virginia and North Carolina.

Which Christmas film was Richard Curtis's directing debut?

Love Actually nods to Curtis's own past: ageing rocker Billy Mack re-records 'Love Is All Around', the hit from Four Weddings and a Funeral, which Curtis wrote, as a tacky Christmas single.

The story of Cupid and Psyche, whose name means 'soul', comes from which second-century Latin novel?

The Golden Ass tells it as a story within a story: an old woman relates it to calm a kidnapped bride, while the narrator, a man turned into a donkey by magic, listens in.

In Greek myth Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was the unfaithful wife of which Olympian god?

Hephaestus, the lame smith-god, takes his revenge in the Odyssey: he forges chains too fine to see, snares his wife in bed with her lover and calls the other gods in to look.

According to Hesiod, Aphrodite was born from sea foam produced by what?

The severed genitals of Uranus: his son Cronus cut them off and threw them into the sea, and the goddess grew in the foam around them. Homer gives her tamer parents, Zeus and Dione.

Where was Charles, Duke of Orléans, when he wrote the earliest surviving valentine?

Imprisoned in the Tower of London after his capture at Agincourt in 1415, he stayed a captive in England for 25 years, and his wife Bonne died before he was freed.

Which medieval English poet is credited with first linking St Valentine's Day to romance, in a poem about birds choosing mates?

Geoffrey Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls has the birds meet on 'Seynt Valentynes day' to pick mates; before it, the saint's feast is not known to have carried any romantic meaning.

Which chocolate maker is widely credited with the first heart-shaped Valentine's box of chocolates, in the 1860s?

Cadbury. Richard Cadbury put the family firm's chocolates in a heart-shaped box for Valentine's Day, and boxes of chocolates soon became tied to the holiday.

Which Chinese philosopher argued for 'universal love' (jian'ai) against Confucian family-first duty?

Mozi taught that people should care for strangers' families as for their own; the Confucian Mencius answered that such impartial love amounted to renouncing one's own father.

In which sport does the umpire call 'love' for a score of zero and 'deuce' for forty-all?

Tennis probably took 'love' from the phrase 'playing for love', meaning playing for nothing, with no stakes wagered.

Which fruit, brought to Europe from the Americas by the Spanish, was once called the 'love apple'?

Tomato plants may owe the nickname to a mix-up: by one account 'pomme d'amour' began as a misreading of the Italian 'pomo dei Mori', the Moors' apple.

Which North American natural wonder has long been marketed as the 'Honeymoon Capital of the World'?

Niagara Falls had its first recorded honeymooners in 1801: Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of Vice President Aaron Burr, and her husband Joseph.

In which 1955 Disney film do two dogs share a strand of spaghetti that ends in an accidental kiss?

Lady and the Tramp sets the dinner at Tony's Restaurant, and it was the first animated feature made in the CinemaScope widescreen process.

Which British king gave up the throne in 1936 to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson?

Edward VIII reigned for only 326 days before telling radio listeners he could not do the job 'without the help and support of the woman I love'.

Which country singer wrote 'I Will Always Love You' as a farewell to her mentor Porter Wagoner?

Dolly Parton later turned down Elvis Presley's wish to record it, because his manager wanted half of the publishing rights signed over.

Which seabirds build nests of stones, where a suitor can win a mate by offering a choice pebble?

Gentoo penguins guard their nest stones jealously, and a quarrel over who owns one can turn into a noisy fight.

Which US state's tourism logo by Milton Glaser turned a red heart into shorthand for 'love'?

New York got the design for nothing: Glaser sketched it in red crayon in the back of a taxi and, expecting the campaign to last a couple of months, worked pro bono.

Which British chocolate maker is credited with the first heart-shaped box of chocolates for Valentine's Day?

Cadbury owes the idea to Richard Cadbury, who designed decorated 'Fancy Boxes' in the 1860s and is credited as the first chocolate-maker to cash in on the link between sweets and romance.

The anonymous 19th-century cards known as 'vinegar valentines' were posted in order to deliver what?

An insult in verse was the whole point: millions were sold mocking a person's looks, intelligence or job, and until the 1840s the victim even paid the postage.

In Romeo and Juliet, which family is Juliet born into, sworn enemies of Romeo's Montagues?

The Capulets also count Rosaline as a niece: Romeo is lovesick for her when he slips into their ball hoping to see her, and meets Juliet instead.

In Pride and Prejudice, which wealthy owner of Pemberley does Elizabeth Bennet finally marry?

Mr Darcy is vehemently refused the first time he proposes, with Elizabeth telling him he has not behaved in a 'gentlemanlike manner'.

Which Righteous Brothers recording returned to the charts in 1990 after featuring in the film Ghost?

Unchained Melody owes its odd title to Unchained, a 1955 prison film for which Alex North composed the tune as a theme.

Which Oscar-winning Hollywood star retired from acting at 26 to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco?

Grace Kelly was still being courted by Hollywood as a princess: Alfred Hitchcock offered her the lead in Marnie in 1962.

For which woman did Henry VIII set aside Catherine of Aragon, triggering England's break with Rome?

Anne Boleyn bore Henry the future Elizabeth I, yet in May 1536 she was convicted on charges most historians dispute and beheaded four days later.

In the sitcom Friends, which couple's long-running quarrel hinges on whether they 'were on a break'?

Ross and Rachel fall apart when he sleeps with a woman named Chloe, then keeps insisting the relationship had already been paused.

On The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, contestants go home when a ceremony leaves them without which flower?

A rose keeps a contestant in the running, and a season of The Bachelor ends with the lead proposing by presenting the 'final rose'.

Which Broadway musical resets Romeo and Juliet among Manhattan gangs called the Jets and the Sharks?

West Side Story began as a draft called East Side Story, in which the Catholic Jets were to clash with a Jewish gang, the Emeralds.

Which musician of Greek myth lost his wife Eurydice by glancing back on the way out of the underworld?

Orpheus had softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone with his music, and their one condition was that he walk in front and not look back.

Which Greek philosopher's name describes a close bond in which sexual desire plays no part?

Plato was linked to the idea in the 15th century, when Marsilio Ficino coined the Latin 'amor platonicus'; 'platonic love' reached English in the 1630s.

In Sleepless in Seattle, atop which skyscraper does Annie propose meeting Sam on Valentine's Day?

The Empire State Building's observation deck had to be recreated on a former naval base for the film, because the real skyscraper was not available.

In Greek myth, which queen of Sparta ran off with the prince Paris, setting off the Trojan War?

Helen owes 'the face that launched a thousand ships' to Christopher Marlowe, who wrote the line for his tragedy Doctor Faustus.

Which 18th-century Venetian adventurer's memoirs made his surname a byword for a seducer?

Giacomo Casanova ended his days far from the bedroom, as a count's librarian at Dux Castle in Bohemia, where he wrote the story of his life.

Which plant dye is painted onto a bride's arms and feet before a South Asian wedding?

Henna patterns often hide the names or initials of the couple among the flowers, vines and peacocks.

The winged archer above London's Piccadilly Circus is popularly known by the name of which Greek god?

Eros is a mistake that stuck: sculptor Alfred Gilbert made the figure as the god's brother Anteros, 'The God of Selfless Love', to honour the philanthropist Lord Shaftesbury.

In Ovid's Metamorphoses, which sculptor falls in love with an ivory statue that Venus brings to life?

Pygmalion never gives his statue a name in Ovid; she was called Galatea only by writers long after the classical age.

Which Norse goddess of love rides in a chariot pulled by two cats?

Freyja also owns the necklace Brísingamen and a cloak of falcon feathers, and the Prose Edda calls her the most approachable of the gods for people to pray to.

Which composer's 'Wedding March' for A Midsummer Night's Dream often plays as newlyweds walk out?

Felix Mendelssohn's march usually closes the ceremony, while the bride often walks in to the 'Bridal Chorus' from Wagner's opera Lohengrin.

Which diamond company's 1947 advertising campaign coined the famous slogan 'A Diamond Is Forever'?

De Beers owes the line to Frances Gerety, a copywriter working for a Philadelphia advertising agency.

Which Scottish border village became famous for runaway couples marrying over a blacksmith's anvil?

Gretna Green's runaway weddings began in 1754, when a new English law demanded parental consent for anyone under 21 but did not apply in Scotland.

On which March 14 holiday, begun in Japan, do men repay women who gave them Valentine's gifts?

White Day had a forerunner in 'Marshmallow Day', a Fukuoka confectioner's late-1970s campaign urging men to answer their Valentine's chocolate with marshmallows.

In which country did young men traditionally carve wooden 'lovespoons' as a gift for a sweetheart?

Wales has made lovespoons since the seventeenth century: the oldest dated Welsh example, carved in 1667, is kept at St Fagans museum near Cardiff.

Which Irish design, named after a Galway fishing village, shows two hands clasping a crowned heart?

The Claddagh ring is credited in legend to Richard Joyce, a Galway silversmith said to have learned his craft while enslaved by a goldsmith in Algeria.

Which gemstone names a 40th wedding anniversary, falling between silver at 25 and gold at 50?

Ruby follows a very old habit: naming anniversaries after precious materials such as silver and gold has been documented in Germanic countries since the 1500s.

Which Austrian painter's shimmering gold-leaf canvas The Kiss hangs in the Belvedere in Vienna?

Gustav Klimt had seen the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna, and the Austrian government bought the painting while it was still unfinished.

Which US Supreme Court ruling, named for the couple who brought it, ended bans on interracial marriage?

Loving v. Virginia began with a police raid: officers found Mildred and Richard Loving asleep in bed, and she pointed to the marriage certificate on the wall.

Which woman, who married William Shakespeare when he was 18, was left his 'second-best bed'?

Anne Hathaway got the bed only as a late addition to the will, written in slightly less than a month before Shakespeare died.

In which city did John Lennon and Yoko Ono spend their honeymoon staging a 'bed-in' for peace?

Amsterdam's Hilton gave the couple its presidential suite, and they invited the world's press to the bedside for twelve hours of every day.

Which book of the Hebrew Bible is erotic love poetry traditionally attributed to King Solomon?

Song of Songs has long been read as an allegory: of the bond between God and Israel in Jewish tradition, and of Christ and the Church in Christianity.

Takotsubo, or 'broken heart syndrome', is named after a Japanese trap for catching which sea creature?

Octopus traps share their shape with the stricken heart, whose tip bulges out while the base keeps working; most patients go on to recover well.

At which Roman festival each February 15 did near-naked men run about striking people with goatskin thongs?

Lupercalia is often called the pagan root of Valentine's Day, but no evidence has been shown to link the two.

Which Italian poet wrote 366 poems inspired by Laura, a woman glimpsed in a church in Avignon?

Petrarch wrote the vast majority of them as sonnets, which is why the Petrarchan sonnet still bears his name.

Which Greek poet from the island of Lesbos wrote lyrics of desire that survive mostly in fragments?

Sappho was hailed in antiquity as the 'Tenth Muse', yet only one of her poems, the Ode to Aphrodite, is certainly complete.

Which French phrase do English speakers borrow for love at first sight?

Coup de foudre literally means a bolt of lightning, and English writers have borrowed it for a sudden, overwhelming infatuation since the 1770s.

In the Chinese legend behind the Qixi Festival, a bridge of magpies lets two lovers cross what once a year?

The Milky Way is the 'Silver River' drawn across the sky to part a weaver girl from her cowherd, and on the festival night people look up for the stars Vega and Altair.

Which American pop artist designed the LOVE image with a slanted O, later issued as a US stamp?

Robert Indiana first made the design for cards he sent to friends in 1964, and it reached a wider public on the Museum of Modern Art's Christmas card a year later.

On a South Korean holiday each April 14, singles who got no Valentine's gifts eat which dish?

Black bean noodles, known as jajangmyeon, give the holiday its name, Black Day, an unofficial occasion that some put down to marketers.

Which medieval philosopher's affair with his student Héloïse ended with her uncle having him castrated?

Peter Abelard later became an abbot and Héloïse the head of a community of nuns, and his letters to her are counted among his works.

In which deep-sea fish does a tiny mate latch onto a far larger partner and sometimes fuse with her?

Anglerfish are so thinly scattered in the deep that meeting one of their own kind is very rare, so a suitor that finds a partner never lets go.

Which birds of Australia and New Guinea woo a mate by building and decorating a structure of sticks?

Bowerbirds may gather hundreds of shells, flowers, berries and feathers, and some add coins, nails or bits of discarded plastic.