god of love, late 14c., from Greek eros (plural erates), literally "love," related to eran "to love," erasthai "to love, desire," of uncertain origin.
Freudian sense of "urge to self-preservation and sexual pleasure" is from 1922. Ancient Greek distinguished four ways of love: erao "to be in love with, to desire passionately or sexually;" phileo "have affection for;" agapao "have regard for, be contented with;" and stergo, used especially of the love of parents and children or a ruler and his subjects.
Eros E·ros or e·ros (ěr'ŏs, ēr'-)
n.
In psychoanalytic theory, the sum of all instincts for self-preservation.
Sexual drive; libido.