From PIE *lewbʰ- (to love, to care) — the same root as 'love,' revealing belief was originally not intellectual assent but an act of the heart.
To accept that something is true, especially without proof; to have faith in the existence or reliability of something.
From Old English 'belȳfan' or 'gelēafan' meaning 'to believe, to have faith in,' from Proto-Germanic *ga-laubijaną (to hold dear, to value, to trust), a compound of *ga- (collective prefix) and *laubō (dear, precious, valued), from PIE root *lewbʰ- (to care, to desire, to love). To 'believe' originally meant 'to hold dear' or 'to love' — belief was not an intellectual judgment but an act of the heart. The same root produced English 'love,' German 'glauben' (to believe), and German 'lieb' (dear). At its deepest level, to believe is to love.
The words 'believe' and 'love' share the same PIE root *lewbʰ- (to care for, to desire). To believe something was originally to hold it dear, to love it as true. German makes this connection transparent: 'glauben' (to believe) and 'lieb' (dear, beloved) are from the same root. The English word 'love' itself descended from the same PIE source through a different Germanic