You can hold one picture behind every use of this word: a boy with a bow, and an arrow already pointing at somebody who has not noticed him. Two things in that picture do all the work. The arrow comes from outside the person, so the love is not something they chose or saw coming. And somebody is aiming it, so the love has an author. Follow the arrow and you get the sudden falling in love. Follow the archer and you get the friend who arranges the meeting. Freeze the boy himself and you get the little figure printed on a card.
From the word’s history
The supplied Wiktionary entry traces the name to Latin Cupido, a personification of cupido (desire, desire of love), from cupio (to desire). So the figure began as the feeling itself given a body, which fits the modern uses: the word keeps pointing at desire that arrives rather than desire that is built.
資料裡的字源說明把這個名字追到拉丁文 Cupīdō，它是 cupīdō（渴望、愛的慾望）被人格化的結果，而 cupīdō 來自動詞 cupiō（想要）。也就是說，這個角色一開始就是「慾望」長出了身體。這條線索和今天的用法對得上：這個字指的一直是突然湧上來的感情，不是慢慢養出來的。
Wiktionary entry for Cupid supplied in this evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:733995325:40342)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。