Loyal, dedicated, self-giving commitment to a person, cause, or activity.
Loyal, dedicated, self-giving commitment to a person, cause, or activity; also religious fervor.
The loyalty-and-commitment pole: love expressed as sustained dedication and self-sacrificing service rather than feeling alone — it “stresses zeal and service amounting to self-dedication.” Unlike infatuation it implies duration and steadfastness; unlike admiration it implies active commitment; unlike adoration (worshipful awe directed upward) it is enacted through loyalty and effort and need not be reverential. Retains a strong religious register and applies freely to causes, country, and duty.
c. 1200 “profound religious emotion, reverence,” from Latin devotionem, from devovere “dedicate by a vow, sacrifice oneself” (de- “away” + vovere “to vow”).
The earliest English sense was religious (“piety, reverence”), with the plural “devotions” (acts of worship) from the late 14c. The secular sense (loyal dedication to a person or cause) came via Italian and French, with the “consecrating” sense from c. 1500. Stable for centuries; no reliable recent-generation shift.