beloved

Pluralbeloveds

1. 1
   adjective

   Dearly loved and held in great affection by many people.

   The beloved old theater downtown is finally being restored.

   He remained a beloved figure long after he left politics.

   Similarcherished, treasured, loved

   Oppositehated, despised, loathed

   Note

   An adjective that began as a participle: Middle English beloved is belove plus -ed, and it still behaves like one. It takes adverbs the way participles do, as in the well-beloved youth of Percy's ballad of 1765. It compares with more beloved and most beloved, though beloveder and belovedest also exist. Its natural place is before a noun or name: Defoe's "my beloved Island," Bunyan's "beloved Faithful."

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A person or thing that is dearly loved.

   The poet addressed each verse to his beloved.

   She returned home to her beloved after months apart.

   Similarsweetheart, love, darling, lover

   Note

   The adjective turned into a noun, typically framed by my or the. Its devotional ring is old. Bunyan's pilgrims cry "If ye see my Beloved, tell him that I am sick of love," and John Gill's 1854 exposition of Solomon's Song speaks of "such beloveds." That plural, beloveds, is the regular one, though the word sits most easily in the singular with a possessive.

3. 3
   verbobsolete

   Simple past and past participle of belove. Obsolete.

   He [William Russell, Lord Russell] was a man of great candour and of a general reputation, univerſally beloved and truſted; of a generous and obliging temper.

   1747, Thomas Birch, “William Lord Russel”

   Note

   The verb behind the adjective, left over from belove. That verb meant "to please," then "to be pleased with," and finally "to love." Active uses like had beloved her are obsolete. What lasted is the passive shape: "universally beloved and trusted" in Thomas Birch (1747), and "Dearly beloved in the Lord" in The Order of the Communion (1547). That shape is where the everyday adjective takes over.

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