No love lost? 互无好感

Reader question:

Please explain “no love lost”, as in this headline: Greenlanders welcome global attention, but there’s no love lost for Trump (August 22, 2019).

My comments:

No love lost.

Literally, if you read it word for word, this may mean that Greenlanders still have a lot of love for Trump, Donald Trump that is, President of the United States.

But “no love lost” is not supposed to be read literally and taken at face value. In truth, the opposite is true: Greenlanders have a lot of hate for Trump, as always.

Well, the story goes like this. One day, Trump, totally out of the blue, announced that Denmark, which owns Denmark, should sell the Arctic territory to the United States. Then the Danish Prime Minister called Trump’s remark insulting. After that, Trump cancelled a visit to Denmark.

That’s practically the long and short of it. And the long and short of it is, in addition, Trump’s remark helps put Greenland on the map, so to speak, for many people. Many people, you see, don’t even know where Greenland is. Now, they know.

Hence, the headline: Greenlanders welcome the global attention Trump’s irresponsible remark brings, but they still hate Trump as much as ever.

Trump is against doing anything to halt climate change, so it’s understandable that Greenlanders may have always hated him. Greenland, after all, is pristine and its few inhabitants don’t mind keeping it that way.

Anyways, back to “no love lost”.

Originally, “no love lost” means mutual love, love between two people in equal measure, i.e. one loves the other as much as the other way around.

Originally, centuries ago, unrequited love was considered to be love lost, lost as in wasted. And it sort of made sense, at least to the English-speaking people. If you love someone and they love you back, and in equal measure, then none of your love for the other person is wasted. If your love for the other person is spurned, however, then your love is in vain. It becomes wasted energy. It is love lost, lost to nothing.

Further explanation, from the Grammarist.com:

No love lost between two people means that they are not friends, they dislike each other intensely. No love lost may describe any two people, male or female.

The phrase no love lost has interesting origins. In the sixteenth century, no love lost could mean that the couple either hated each other equally or loved each other equally. Unrequited love was considered love lost, so if two people’s sentiments matched in intensity and amount of regard, whether love or hate, then there was no love lost.

Around the year 1800, the term no love lost began to refer only to a situation in which there is ill will between two people.

Nowadays, in short, love in “no love lost” is only to be taken euphemistically.

And here are a few recent media examples:

1. There is no love lost between 18-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios. Their latest encounter, a pulsating second-round match on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, didn’t disappoint.

Nadal advanced after four dramatic sets with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) victory. We break down another classic at the All England Club:

The underarm serves

It has been 30 years since Michael Chang made the underarm serve famous at the French Open, but this year, Kyrgios has been making it his own. And it’s a legitimate and sensible tactic against Nadal, who often stands way back behind the baseline to return.

It’s not an easy skill, either, but at 2-5, 40-0 in the first set, Kyrgios made it look easy as he feathered a beautiful underarm serve barely over the net, leaving Nadal stranded. The crowd was impressed and even Nadal smiled. Sort of. In the second set, Kyrgios did another one -- and won the point again -- but this time, the crowd jeered. Fickle bunch.

Kyrgios was asked in his post-match press conference why he had not attempted to do it again, as it had clearly worked in unsettling Nadal. His reply was equally as spicy.

“If I do something outrageous, I get, like, destroyed in the media for it. I thought I’d be professional and hit a normal serve. That’s what I was thinking -- no, I’m kidding.

“I just didn't want to hit another one. Oh, shoot me down for not hitting an underarm serve Centre Court against Rafa. What do you want from me, man? I don’t know what you want from me.”

Umpire exchanges

No one chunters like Kyrgios and, at times, it’s almost as if he needs to have a running conversation with the umpire just to keep himself engaged. Irritated at the time Nadal was taking between points, Kyrgios took his annoyance out on Damien Dumusois, the unlucky man in the chair, asking him why he wasn’t doing anything about it.

“Wow, you’ve got so much power up there,” Kyrgios said.

That drew a code violation and he actually played better for a while, with the average speed on his forehand cranking up a few notches. Still the rant continued: “Look at you. Look at you. You’re no one. You think you’re important. You have no idea what’s going on. You’re a disgrace.”

After the match, Kyrgios added, “I got angry at the ref. He’s like, ‘No, I’ll tell him what I want to tell him.’ I was like, ‘Oh, a little bit of a power trip there.’ He obviously feels pretty important sitting up in the chair. He was just terrible. I thought the way he handled the match was just bad.”

- Breaking down the drama of Nadal-Kyrgios at Wimbledon, ESPN.com, July 5, 2019.

2. Bette Midler is facing backlash after suggesting that President Donald Trump paid African American supporters to add “blackground” to his rally.

The outspoken Trump critic took to Twitter Wednesday to share a photo of a group of black men standing in the crowd behind Trump during one of his reelection rallies.

“Look, there are African American men in this shot! How much did he pay them to be ‘blackground’?” Midler, 73, tweeted to her 1.7 million followers.

Her remark was instantly slammed as “racist” and “really sick.”

...

Trump hasn’t addressed her tweet yet.

There is no love lost between Midler and Trump. In June, the president called Midler a “washed up psycho” after she apologized for tweeting an alleged Trump quote that was phony.

- Bette Midler calls African American Trump supporters ‘blackground,’ is slammed as ‘racist’, USAToday.com, July 26, 2019.

3. Steven Gerrard’s Rangers continue their Scottish Premiership quest tonight away to Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

With much of the media focus on Sunday’s massive League Cup final against Celtic, it’s easy to forget that a huge three points are also on the table.

Celtic host Hamilton at home and will be expected to win, so it’s important for Gerrard and his team to not concede any ground at the top of the table.

Aberdeen have been one of the Gers’ big rivals over the last few years. Competitive on the pitch, there’s also no love lost between the two sets of supporters.

Gerrard talked about a potential fiery atmosphere in his pre-match press conference, telling rangers.co.uk: “We’ve got to thrive and enjoy and embrace the atmosphere at Pittodrie. The players have faced some real big atmospheres and challenges when you think of Feyenoord and Legia Warsaw away.

“We’re obviously used to a big atmosphere at home as well, so I don’t think any of my players will be shying away or intimidated by the Pittodrie atmosphere. For me it’s get your chest out and embrace it and really enjoy it.”

- Rangers predicted lineup vs Aberdeen: Ryan Jack returns in strong Gerrard team, HITC.com, December 4, 2019.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣 编辑：丹妮）