This reminds me of a typical conversation when we were kids at home:
Kid: I just love this food!
Dad: You don't love food!
Kid: Then what do you say?
Dad: You say you really like it.
Kid: But I just love it!
Clearly, "really like" wasn't adequate for our purposes.
I have been known to take certain liberties with words such as "beloved" when referring to my old Minolta SLRs, Minolta Autocords, and Mamiya TLRs. In linguistics, a dictionary, a thesaurus, or a grammar is seen as a description of current usage and not a prescription therefor. These references are starting points, not ending points. I think it's important to be well versed in standard language, and from there to use it creatively ("coloring outside the lines," if you will). In so doing, the expressive capability of any language is expanded.
I think any one of us is capable of understanding the intent of the speaker when "beloved" is used in this context, and that is the purpose of successful communication.
- Murray