unlove

Etymology

From un- (“not; lack of”) + love (noun).

Why this word is great

UNLOVE — [Noun, Verb] The absence or cessation of love; to cease loving someone or something. From un- ("not; lack of") + love, with the verb form derived from the noun’s quiet negation. Unlike "hate" (which seethes with active hostility) or "indifference" (which shrugs with apathy), "unlove" is the hollow where warmth once lived. It is the unwatered plant withering unnoticed, the photograph left face-down on the dresser, the silence where a nickname used to linger—not malice, not disregard, just the slow erosion of what was once tender. Love departs, and unlove remains: the ghost of a feeling, the shape of an absence.

noun

The lack, absence, or omission of love; lovelessness; enmity; neglect; hate.“Disgust, nausea, loathing—some aspects of yourself and others surely deserve such abhorrent gut responses. But disgust doesn't create suffering— recoil does. Separation is the act of unlove.”

verb

To lose one's love (for someone or something).“I have told you, reader, that I had learnt to love Mr. Rochester: I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me--because I might pass hours in his presence, and he would never once turn his eyes in my direction--because I saw all his attentions appropriated by a great lady, who scorned to touch me with the hem of her robes as she passed; who, if ever her dark a”