From WWWJDIC:
愛 【あい】 (n,n-suf) (See 愛する) love; affection;
恋 【こい】 (n) love; tender passion;
My understanding on affection, love and tender passion is like the following:
affection < love < tender passion
If I may line up all three in a spectrum in term of the strength of the emotion involved, I imagine 愛 covers the lower end of the spectrum while 恋 covers the higher end. The adjectives that are derived from these two nouns seem to conform to it:
愛しい 【いとしい】 (adj-i) lovely; dear; beloved; darling;
恋しい 【こいしい】 (adj-i) yearned for; longed for; missed;
However, when the two kanji characters are combined with 人 to refer to the person that is the target of each type of love:
愛人 【あいじん】 (n) lover; mistress;
恋人 【こいびと】 (n) lover; sweetheart;
Apparently the two 'loves' swap places, with my assumption being:
sweetheart < lover < mistress
What's going on? Am I not getting the nuances for both nouns for 'love' right?
N.B. I don't mind getting philosophical answers here so please go all out if you must ;)
