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lax [lax 词源字典]: lax: see lease, relish
[lax etymology, lax origin, 英语词源]
lay: lay: English has three words lay. The common verb, ‘cause to lie’ [OE], goes back to the prehistoric Germanic base *lag- ‘put’, a variant of which produced lie. From it was derived *lagjan, whose modern descendants are German legen, Dutch leggen, Swedish lägga, Danish lægge, and English lay. Law comes from the same source, and it is possible that ledge [14] may be an offshoot of lay (which in Middle English was legge). Ledger could well be related too. Lay ‘secular’ [14] comes via Old French lai and Latin lāicus from Greek lāikós, a derivative of lāós ‘the people’.

And lay ‘ballad’ [13] comes from Old French lai, a word of unknown origin.
=> law, lie, ledger; liturgy
layer: layer: see lair
lazy: lazy: [16] Lazy is one of the problem words of English. It suddenly appears in the middle of the 16th century, and gradually replaces the native terms slack, slothful, and idle as the main word for expressing the concept ‘averse to work’, but no one knows for sure where it came from. Early spellings such as laysy led 19th-century etymologists to speculate that it may have been derived from lay, but the more generally accepted theory nowadays is that it was borrowed from Low German. Middle Low German had the similar lasich ‘lazy, loose’, which may go back to an Indo-European form denoting ‘slack’.
lead: lead: [OE] English has two words lead, spelled the same but of course pronounced differently and with a very different history. The verb goes back to a prehistoric West and North Germanic *laithjan. This was derived from *laithō ‘way, journey’ (from which English gets load); so etymologically lead means ‘cause to go along one’s way’. Its Germanic relatives include German leiten, Dutch leiden, Swedish leda, and Danish lede. Lead the metal is probably of Celtic origin.

The prehistoric Celtic word for ‘lead’ was *loudiā, which may have come ultimately from an Indo-European source meaning ‘flow’ (a reference to the metal’s low melting point). Its modern descendants include Irish luaidhe and Gaelic luaidh. It could well have been borrowed into prehistoric West Germanic as *lauda, which would have produced modern German lot ‘solder’, Dutch lood ‘lead’, and English lead.
=> load
leaf: leaf: [OE] Leaf goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *laubaz, which also produced words for ‘foliage’ in other modern Germanic languages (German laub, Dutch loof, Swedish löf, and Danish løv). It is not known for certain where the Germanic word came from, although a connection has been suggested with Russian lupit’ ‘bark’. It may also lie behind the modern English words lobby and lodge.
=> lobby, lodge
leak: leak: [15] The ultimate source of leak is probably a prehistoric Germanic *lek-, which denoted ‘deficiency’ (a variant *lak- gave English lack). It is not clear how this reached English; it could have been via Old Norse leka, or through Middle Dutch lēken.
=> lack
lean: lean: [OE] Lean ‘thin’ and lean ‘incline’ are of course of completely different origin. The adjective goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *khlainjaz. The verb can be traced to an Indo- European base *kli- ‘lean, slope’, which has given English a wealth of vocabulary. Via Greek intermediaries have come climate, climax, and clinic, while its Latin descendant clīnāre has produced decline, incline, and recline.

The prehistoric Germanic verb formed from it was *khlinōjan, which has diversified into modern German lehnen, Dutch leunen, and English lean. From the same Germanic base come ladder, and also perhaps links ‘golf course’ [OE], which originally meant ‘sloping or rising ground’.
=> climate, climax, clinic, decline, incline, ladder, links, recline
leap: leap: [OE] Prehistoric Germanic *khlaupan was the source of English leap, and of its relatives German laufen and Dutch loopen (these both denote ‘run’, a meaning which leap used to have – and which is preserved in its first cousins lope [15], a borrowing from Old Norse, and elope). It is not known where it ultimately came from, although a connection has been suggested with Indo-European *kloub-, source of Lithuanian šlubuoti ‘limp’. The verb loaf may be related.
=> loaf, lope
leap year: leap year: [14] The inspiration for the term leap year is probably simply that in such a year the day on which any given date falls ‘jumps’ one day ahead of where it would have been in an ordinary year. The metaphorical application of the notion of ‘jumping’ to this phenomenon predates the first record of the term leap year: medieval Latin, for instance, used the term saltus lunae ‘moon’s jump’ for the nineteen-yearly omission of a day from the lunar calendar, and this was translated into Old English as mōnan hlyp ‘moon’s leap’.
learn: learn: [OE] Learn comes from a prehistoric West Germanic *liznōjan, which also produced German lernen. This goes back ultimately to an Indo-European *leis- ‘track’, and so seems to carry the underlying notion of ‘gaining experience by following a track’. Very closely related are terms in various Germanic languages for ‘teach’ (German lehren, for instance, and Dutch leeren, Swedish löra, and Danish lære – the last three also mean ‘learn’). English used to have such a verb for ‘teach’ too: lere. It had largely died out by the 19th century, but the related lore ‘knowledge’ [OE] survives.
=> last, lore
lease: lease: [15] The etymological idea underlying lease is of ‘letting go’ – a notion more readily apparent in its close relative release. Its ultimate ancestor is the Latin adjective laxus ‘loose’, source of English lax [14]. From this was derived the verb laxāre ‘loosen, let go’, which passed into Old French as laissier (its modern descendant is laisser ‘leave, let’). Anglo- Norman took it over as lesser, and used it for ‘letting something go’ to someone else for a certain period under the terms of a legal contract. Hence English lease. The derivatives lessee [15] and lessor [15] also come from Anglo-Norman.
=> lax, release
least: least: [OE] In origin, least is simply the superlative form of less. The prehistoric Germanic ancestor of less was *laisiz (itself a comparative form). Addition of the superlative suffix produced *laisistaz, which passed into Old English as lǣsest. Unchanged, this would have become in modern English *lessest, but it was contracted in the Old English period to lǣst, and so modern English has least.
=> less
leather: leather: [OE] The Indo-European ancestor of leather was *letrom. It has descendants in two branches of the Indo-European language family: in Celtic, Welsh lledr, Irish leathar, and Breton ler; and in Germanic, German leder, Dutch leer, Swedish läder, Danish læder, and English leather.
leave: leave: [OE] English has two distinct words leave. The noun, meaning ‘permission’, comes from a prehistoric West Germanic *laubā, which was derived from a root meaning ‘pleasure, approval’ (other English words from the same source include believe and love). It passed semantically through ‘be well disposed to’ to ‘trust’ (a sense preserved in the related believe, and also in the cognate German glauben ‘believe’), and from there to ‘permit’.

The verb leave ‘go away’ comes from a prehistoric Germanic *laibjan ‘remain’. It has been speculated that this is related ultimately to various Indo-European words for ‘sticky substances’ or ‘stickiness’ (Sanskrit lipta- ‘sticky’, for instance, and Greek lípos ‘grease’, source of English lipid [20]), and that its underlying meaning is ‘remaining stuck’, hence ‘staying in a place’.

The sense ‘remain’ survived into English, but it died out in the 16th century, leaving as its legacy the secondary causative sense ‘cause to remain’. The apparently opposite sense ‘go away’, which emerged in the 13th century, arose from viewing the action of the verb from the point of view of the person doing the leaving rather than of the thing being left. The related German bleiben, which incorporates the prefix bi-, still retains the sense ‘remain’.

Other related English words, distant and close respectively, are eclipse and eleven.
=> believe, love; eclipse, eleven, lipid, twelve
lecher: lecher: [12] Etymologically, a lecher is a ‘licker’. English borrowed the word from Old French lecheor, a derivative of the verb lechier ‘lick’, which was used figuratively for ‘live a life of debauchery’. This in turn came from Frankish *likkōn, a descendant of the same prehistoric Germanic source as English lick [OE]. The inspiration of the metaphor, which originally encompassed the pleasures of the table as well as of the bed, was presumably the tongue as an organ of sensual gratification.
=> lick
lecture: lecture: [14] The Latin verb legere has been a prodigious contributor to English vocabulary. It originally meant ‘gather, choose’, and in that guise has given us collect, elect, elegant, intelligent, legion [13] (etymologically a ‘chosen’ body), neglect, and select. It subsequently developed semantically to ‘read’, and from that mode English has taken lecture, lectern [14] (from the medieval Latin derivative lectrīnum), legend [14] (etymologically ‘things to be read’), and lesson.
=> collect, elect, elegant, intelligent, legend, legible, legion, lesson, neglect, select
ledger: ledger: [15] Etymologically, a ledger is a book that ‘lies’ in one place. The term was used in 15th- and 16th-century English with various specific applications, including a ‘large copy of the Breviary’ (the Roman Catholic service book), and a ‘large register or record-book’ – both big volumes that would not have been moved around much – but it finally settled on the ‘main book in the set of books used for keeping accounts’. It probably comes from Dutch legger or ligger, agent nouns derived respectively from leggen ‘lay’ and liggen ‘lie’ (relatives of English lay and lie).
=> lay, lie
left: left: [13] The Old English word for ‘left’ was winestra. Etymologically this meant ‘friendlier’ (it is related to Swedish vän ‘friend’), and its euphemistic application to ‘left’ is a reminder that historically the left-hand side of the body has been superstitiously regarded as of ill omen. To call it ‘friendly’ (a usage which survives in Swedish vänster and Danish venstre ‘left’) was an attempt to placate the evil forces of the left. (Latin sinister ‘left’ is similarly fraught with negative connotations.

It too had euphemistic origins – it came from a source meaning ‘more useful’ – and it developed the figurative senses ‘unfavourable’, ‘injurious’, etc, taken over and extended by English in sinister [15].) An ancestor of left existed in Old English – left or *lyft. But it meant ‘weak’ or ‘foolish’, and it was not until the 13th century that it came to be used as the partner of right.

Its ultimate origins are not known.
leg: leg: [13] Shank was the word used in Old English for ‘leg’. Not until the late 13th was leg acquired, from Old Norse leggr. It goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *lagjaz, which may ultimately come from a source that meant ‘bend’. No other Germanic language any longer uses it for ‘leg’, but Swedish and Danish retain lägg and læg respectively for ‘calf’.