Difference between loving and wanting
to love is to feel love for something or someone. It is used in very close ties: parents and children, best friends and partners, where its use is most popular.
Want It is wishing, feeling the need to have something or someone, or failing that, some aspect of it: their attention, their time, their love, etc.
The difference between loving and wanting is that loving is a higher expression of love or affection, since it is a feeling that has evolved over time between two or more people.
Wanting, on the other hand, is about something more immediate, which may be temporary or on the contrary, it can evolve into a true desire to love.
| to love | Want | |
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| Definition | Feeling love or affection for something or someone in a selfless way. | Feeling the intense desire to have something or someone, or to obtain something concrete from a situation. |
| Source | From Latin i will love. | From Latin quarere. |
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What is love?
Loving is the act of expressing love, so it can seem like a very generic action. However, in this case it refers to the fact of feeling intense and prolonged affection or affection.
Love comes from latin i will love, which in turn is speculated to come from Indo-European amma, a childish expression to designate the mother. Therefore, specialists in the field have suggested that amare may have had an initial connotation linked to the filial relationship mother and child.
However, nowadays love is also associated (and much more frequently) with the bonds between couples.
Loving is more related to the maturity of a relationship or a bond, and involves an adult management of emotions. For example, parents love their children (and vice versa), not because they are ignorant of their flaws, but above them.
In the same way, couple relationships usually start in a romantic way (more associated with loving) but with the step time the bond evolves and with it, certain values such as respect, companionship, patience and empathy. This gives the relationship greater depth and creates space for it to last over time, despite the differences between the members of the couple.
See also Difference between emotion and feeling.
What is wanting?
Wanting implies wanting to have something or someone. In that sense, loving a person implies feeling affection for them or for a particular aspect.
Wanting comes from Latin quarere, which means to ask for something, to try to get something from someone or from a situation.
This does not necessarily imply that the bond is developed out of interest, but in the sense that whoever wants to, is waiting for her affection to be rewarded in some way. We can love someone because we like to spend time with him or her and we feel that their company repays the affection we feel.
We can also love a person because we give or receive attention, because it generates a sense of security, because we feel that his behavior or knowledge of it can be valuable, because ultimately, it contributes something that is important to the one want from her.
Wanting can be intense but also transitory. In that sense, wanting can become something greater, like loving, but it can also suddenly disappear.
An example of wanting that is very common is the first stage of falling in love, in which couples spend a lot of time together, emotions are very much skin and in a very general way it can be said that it is a period of self-absorption, in which it is not always possible to discern on certain matters with objectivity.
The evolution of the relationship, the common agreements, the emotional maturity of the members of the couple, the shared values, among Other factors will then determine if it was a temporary sensation or, if on the contrary, they are going to enter a further stage solid.
See also Difference between friendship and companionship.