Plato's concept concerned spiritual growth, expressed using the metaphor of a ladder which the lover ascends. Physical attraction to a particular beautiful body is only at the bottom; as the lover ascends the ladder, a love for absolute beauty itself is the ultimate inspiration at the top.

In the 15th century, a Latin term for Plato's idea of love, amor platonicus, was coined by Marsilio Ficino; "platonic love" then entered the English language in the 1630s, when