It occurred to me that "I missed you" is ambiguous, and open to two interpretations: 1) I failed to see/meet you, as in I missed the target 2) I had you in my mind when you were absent.
From the Online Etymology Dictionary: Meaning "to fail to get what one wanted" is from mid-13c. Sense of "to escape, avoid" is from 1520s; that of "to perceive with regret the absence or loss of (something or someone)" is from late 15c.Sense of "to not be on time for" is from 1823; to miss the boat in the figurative sense of "be too late for" is from 1929, originally nautical slang.
So the object of missing is initially something concrete, as in "missing the target". Sentiments of this act of "missing the target" ensues as in "I miss you" (because I missed concrete presence of you at that time in that place). The object of missing then shifted from something concrete in time and place to something temporal, as in "I missed the boat" (because I missed the time point when the boat was here).
Following this logic, it seems that the feeling of "missing someone" derives from the fact that "one fails to get/see someone", and the factual result of this missing is not being on time in life for someone, fate.
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