Etymology

Borrowed from German Liebe ‎(“love”), from Middle High German liebe ‎(“joy, affection, kindliness”), from from Old High German lioba, liobī, derived from the adjective liob (whence Yiddish ליב ‎(lib)), from Proto-Germanic *leubaz, from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- ‎(“love, care, desire”). The sense “(romantic) love” developped only in early modern German, replacing older Minne; the noun as such is absent from many German dialects. The final -e in Yiddish also attests to the non-native origin.