Your LOVE is a million

Meaning & Analysis

Your love is worth an immense sum, as valuable as a million (pounds, coins, or any great treasure).

Insights

Inestimable Value

The proverb conveys that the affection or devotion of the beloved is beyond measure, worth more than any material wealth—a priceless treasure.

Hyperbolic Praise

It uses exaggeration to celebrate the beloved’s love, suggesting that its worth is far greater than any tangible fortune, thereby elevating love above worldly goods.

Emotional Richness

The saying implies that love bestows a feeling of abundance, making one feel as fortunate as if they possessed great riches.

Literary and Social Context

Appearing in works from Shakespeare (‘Thy love is worth a million’) to Dekker, Middleton, Butler, and Swift, the phrase became a conventional expression of affectionate hyperbole in the early modern period, often exchanged in friendship as well as romance.

Social Economy of Affection

By equating love to vast sums of money, the proverb reflects the persistent tendency to measure the immeasurable in economic terms, while also subverting this logic by implying that some things—like love—are truly beyond price.

Psychological Dimension

The use of ‘a million’ signals the way love transforms perception, making one feel rich regardless of actual wealth, emphasizing the emotional fulfillment that love brings.

Rhetorical Devices

Hyperbole

The phrase’s exaggeration (‘a million’) amplifies the sentiment, expressing intensity of feeling in a memorable, emphatic way.

Metaphor

Love is metaphorically cast as wealth, with the beloved’s affection treated as a fortune or treasure, making the emotional value tangible.

Address and Directness

The use of the direct address (‘your love’) gives the proverb immediacy and intimacy, heightening its emotional resonance.

lovevaluewealthhyperboleaffectionpraise
Analyzed with gpt-4o on July 10, 2025

Transcription

Quotations

Theres a friend worth a Million.

1611, DEKKER AND MIDDLETON, Roaring Girl, s. D3v

A friend at need you Rogue is worth a million.

1639, FLETCHER, M. Thomas, III i, p. 127

Madam (quoth he) your Love's a Million.

1678, S. BUTLER, Hud., III i 523, p. 278

O, madam, your love's a million.

1738, SWIFT, Pol. Conv., III, p. 463

Shakespeare Citations

A thousand pound, Hal? A million! Thy love is worth a million.

1H4, III.iii

Original Scan

Your LOVE is a million - a scanned entry from Tilley's 1950 Dictionary of Proverbs.
Scan courtesy of HathiTrust Digital Library.
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.

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Last updated: January 27, 2026