Your Grammar Cop column joins the lovestruck in greeting all a Happy Valentine’s Day! (Happy Valentine Day, without the “s” after Valentine, is just as appropriate.)
We reprint a portion of our February 14, 2008 column that explains when and where Valentine’s Day started:
If Valentine’s Day is named after the two priests named Valentines — who were beheaded in the 3rd century A.D. in pagan Rome and later declared saints by the Catholic Church with February 14 as the day of feasting in their honor — why is there now more romantic fervor than religiosity in its observance?
The Romans believed “birds paired up to nest and raise their young” on the same day. So the next day, February 15, lovesick Romans exchanged love letters and presents. Consequently, the religious merged with the romantic, the latter overpowering the former through time. Love conquers all.
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“Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There’s too much fraternizing with the enemy” - Henry Kissinger
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“Love means not ever having to say you’re sorry.” - Erich Segal
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“Sex is a momentary itch; love never lets you go.” - Kingley Amis
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“ ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” - Alfred Lord Tennyson
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The great question that has never been answered, despite my 30 years of research into the feminine soul, is: “What does a woman want?” - Sigmund Freud
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Some people should never marry because instead of “Happily Ever After,” it turns into “Happily Never After.” - Reader’s Digest
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Words and phrases you’re likely to read or hear about this week: star-crossed lovers (lovers seeking an ideal state of love or are shooting for the stars); unrequited love (unanswered love - un ri KWY td); platonic love (not sexual, but purely spiritual or intellectual - ple TAN ik, the “O” in the second syllable rhymes with car and father); tortured, tormented, or ill-fated love is doomed love.
A saner or more tamed word would be “failed” (i.e., failed love affair, marriage or romance).
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Parting Shot: Marriage is not a noun; it is a verb. It isn’t something you get. It’s something you do. It’s the way you love your partner everyday. - Barbara de Angelis
(from Sun.Star Cebu)
