"Love" salutation

Hello to everybody,

In e-mails received from Indian persons in a semi-professional context, people would sometimes greet me with "Love" and I would like to know further the use and connotation of this word in English. In Spanish or in French for instance, saying goodbye to someone with "Amor" or "Amour" would clearly refer to loving feeling.

Thank you!

Do you mean a greeting ("Dear sir,") or a closing ("Yours truly,")?

In mail and email closings I write "Love, James" only to mean I care for you deeply. I would never use this in a semi-professional context, only in personal mail/email.

I never use "love" in a greeting. I usually say "Hello John," or simply "John," in my professional emails.

It's a closing jmichaelm. Thank you for your answer 👁 Smile :)

In American English, people use "Love" at the end of an email or other correspondence, but only if they actually love the person they are writing to. In this case, it can mean either romantic or platonic love. Generally, this is reserved for family and sometimes, very close friends. It would definitely not be used in a semi-professional context, and if you did this by accident, you'd be very embarrassed:

"Dear Bobby,
Here is the money for this semester's tuition. Hope you're studying hard!
Love, Mom" 👁 Thumbs Up :thumbsup:


"Sweetheart,
I just want you to know I'm thinking of you and miss you every minute we're apart.
Love, Richard" 👁 Thumbs Up :thumbsup:


"Hi Tom,
Here's the spreadsheet you were looking for. Call me if you have questions about it.
Love, Jim" 👁 Thumbs Down :thumbsdow
, and also 👁 Eek! :eek:
and 👁 Warning :warning:


This may be a valid use in Indian English, but definitely not in American English.

In AE, I would never use it in business unless (a) I was making a joke, (b) I was absolutely certain the other person would know it was a joke, and (c) I was absolutely certain that no third person would ever see the e-mail. That combination of conditions has not yet come up. I doubt it ever will.

I've received several dozen e-mails from Indians in the past few years, but I don't recall ever seeing one signed that way. Most of my correspondents are in Tamil Nadu. Their first language tends to be Tamil. Is this perhaps a regional practice, even in Indian English? Or is it perhaps based on a word or expression in Hindi that doesn't have a parallel in Tamil?

Thanks Linguo IS Dead, the problem is that I am not the "love-greeting-writer", but I have been replied professional mails ending like this, you thus understand my embarrasment. It is with Tamil-speaking people Egmont, true. Sometimes I wonder if it could not be some sort of "bhakti yoga" ? 👁 Big Grin :D

If you get this from Tamil speakers, my theory was wrong. Oh, well.

Maybe it's related to bhakti yoga or expresses some other aspect of divine love. I can't begin to guess.

My suggestions would be to accept it as their practice, not to comment on it, and not to use it.

I have seen "Peace" used as a closing. I think it is actually an imperative in this usage: "Be at peace" or "Let peace into your life" (Informal; possibly semi-formal; never formal.)

Perhaps "Love" in this case is something similar. "Be a loving person" or the like. 👁 Warning :warning:
As Linguo_IS_Dead has said: Love (as a closing) has some very specific uses in AE/BE which would not fit well in anything but close, personal correspondence.