limerence
- An involuntary, obsessive state of intense romantic infatuation with another person, characterized by intrusive thoughts, longing for reciprocation, and emotional dependency.
In a sentence
- She recognized that what she felt was not mature love but limerence—an all-consuming fixation she struggled to think past.
- Psychologists distinguish limerence from companionate love because the former depends on uncertainty and the longing for reciprocation.
Usage note. Limerence is a technical psychological term, not a synonym for love or mere attraction; using it precisely means emphasizing the involuntary, obsessive, and reciprocation-seeking quality of the feeling.
Where it comes from
English limerence · entered English 20th c.
Coined by American psychologist Dorothy Tennov in her 1979 book 'Love and Limerence.' Tennov invented the word deliberately, wanting a term free of prior connotations; it has no classical roots and the coinage itself is arbitrary. It entered broader psychological and popular usage in the late 20th century.