l'amour!

val·en·tine  (vln-tn)

n.

1.

a. A sentimental or humorous greeting card sent to a sweetheart, friend, or family member, for example, on Saint Valentine's Day.

b. A gift sent as a token of love to one's sweetheart on Saint Valentine's Day.

2. A person singled out especially as one's sweetheart on Saint Valentine's Day.

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[After Saint Valentine.]

Word History: Lovers and the greeting card industry may have Geoffrey Chaucer to thank for the holiday that warms the coldest month. Although reference books abound with mentions of Roman festivals from which Valentine's Day may derive, Jack B. Oruch has shown that no evidence supports these connections and that Chaucer was probably the first to link the saint's day with the custom of choosing sweethearts. No such link has been found before the writings of Chaucer and several literary contemporaries who also mention it, but after them the association becomes widespread. It seems likely that Chaucer, the most imaginative of the group, invented it. The fullest and perhaps earliest description of the Valentine's Day tradition occurs in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules, composed around 1380, which takes place "on Seynt Valentynes day,/Whan every foul cometh there to chese [choose] his make [mate]."

I hope you're all having a lovely day - single or in a couple - tell someone today that you love them; your best friend, your cat, your child, your lover, it doesn't matter who.  As the song goes ' Love is all you need'.  I know red is really the traditional colour of love, but I'm feeling the pink today, so here's some pink valentine stuff to keep you going.