# liver love

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liver-love/273672>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 8, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liver-love/273672 "2004-11-08T17:25:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![smilingscar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@smilingscar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smilingscar)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liver-love/273672/1 "2004-11-08T17:25:48Z")

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why did people back in the day (i’m thinking…16th century) think that the liver was the source of love in the human body?

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liver-love/273672/2 "2004-11-08T18:26:41Z")

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To be precise, the liver was associated with _physical desire_, not love.

It’s difficult to say exactly _why_ the natural philosophers made this association, as they had a complex and often contradictory system of correspondences with colour, astrology, etc.

One of the reasons was apparantly that the bile produced by the liver is green, and green is associated with generative growth and life. Don’t be put off by the smell – the alchemists believed that all growth began with corruption and decay.

(This belief was already well-established by the 14th century, by the way.)

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liver-love/273672/3 "2004-11-08T20:59:02Z")

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Why do people now associate love with the heart? Associating it with the liver is no less logical.

One reason is that after an animal dies, the liver is the part which stays warm for the longest time. And it’s closer to the center of the body than is the heart.

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**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liver-love/273672/4 "2004-11-08T21:14:23Z")

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[QUOTE=Chronos]  
Why do people now associate love with the heart? Associating it with the liver is no less logical.QUOTE]  
Because your chest hurts when you feel broken-hearted and fluttery when you feel in love? I don’t remember ever having my liver feel any particular way. 🙂

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**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liver-love/273672/5 "2004-11-08T21:39:14Z")

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> [@gigi](#):
>
> > [@Chronos](#):
> >
> > Why do people now associate love with the heart? Associating it with the liver is no less logical.
> 
> Because your chest hurts when you feel broken-hearted and fluttery when you feel in love? I don’t remember ever having my liver feel any particular way. 🙂

Actually, I feel it more in my solar plexus, or a little above - exactly where the liver is. (It’s a big sucker, lays across most of the abdomen.)