Beloved means dearly loved. Warmer than liked, and used about people and things alike.
It goes in front of a noun, so a beloved grandmother or a beloved old car, and it appears constantly in obituaries and dedications. It also works as a noun meaning the person loved, which is thoroughly literary. The pronunciation splits, since the adjective is usually three syllables and the participle in beloved by all is two, and both are heard. Dearly beloved opens the marriage service.
1adjectivebelovedDearly loved.
“The dog was beloved by the whole street.”
Middle English
beloved
English, today
beloved
From Middle English beloved, biloved, equivalent to belove + ed.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 16 of A Man Called Ove.
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