Difference between "Amo, amare" and "Diligo, diligere"

[JuanCarlos]

To the Latin scholars out there, can you describe the difference between “amo” and “diligo”? At the end of St. John’s Gospel, the Latin text reads Jesus’ asking Peter, “Diligis me?” And Peter responding “Amo te” twice, and then finally Jesus asking “Amo me?” and Peter responding “Amo te”. I feel like this gives it a lot more meaning than the English translation (which translates both as ‘love’), and is closer to the Greek original where Jesus uses “agape” and Peter uses “philos”. I used to think amare was stronger than diligere, but the context (and the Grek original) suggest otherwise. Any help?

 

[tee_eff_em]

I understand the feeling that *amo *is stronger, but that likely comes from (i) familiarity and (ii) its association with passionate love. *Diligo *is etymologically related to *lego, legere *which is typically translated as “to read”, but has a deeper meaning of “to choose, to select” (when you read, you pick out words on a page – Noteasywhentherearenospacesnorpunctuation ), so *diligo *is a more conscious decision (selecting one from among others) than emotional response.

Lewis & Short’s lexicon has this to say, under amo (NB amo’s association with Greek eros and philos, diligo’s association with agape):

to like, to love, ἐράω, φιλέω (both in the higher and the lower sense, opp. odisse; while diligere (ἀγαπῶ) designates esteem, regard; opp. neglegere or spernere;… In the Vulgate amo and amor are comparatively little used, probably from their bad associations, amo being used 51 times and amor 20. Instead of these words, diligo, dilectio and caritas were used. Diligo (incl. dilectus) occurs 422 times, and dilectio and caritas 144 times in all; dilectio 43 and caritas 101 times).

tee

 

[JuanCarlos]

I understand the feeling that *amo *is stronger, but that likely comes from (i) familiarity and (ii) its association with passionate love. *Diligo *is etymologically related to *lego, legere *which is typically translated as “to read”, but has a deeper meaning of “to choose, to select” (when you read, you pick out words on a page – Noteasywhentherearenospacesnorpunctuation ), so *diligo *is a more conscious decision (selecting one from among others) than emotional response.

Lewis & Short’s lexicon has this to say, under amo (NB amo’s association with Greek eros and philos, diligo’s association with agape):

tee

Thanks! That really helps.