英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

lead-up (n.)[lead-up 词源字典]: 1917, from lead (v.1) + up (adv.).[lead-up etymology, lead-up origin, 英语词源]
leaden (adj.): "made of lead," Old English leaden, from lead (n.1) + -en (2). The figurative sense of "heavy, oppressive, dull" is attested by 1570s. Related: Leadenly; leadenness.
leader (n.): Old English lædere "one who leads," agent noun from lædan (see lead (v.)). As a title for the head of an authoritarian state, from 1918 (translating führer, Duce, caudillo, etc.). Meaning "writing or statement meant to begin a discussion or debate" is late 13c.; in modern use often short for leading article (1807) "opinion piece in a British newspaper" (leader in this sense attested from 1837).
leaderless (adj.): 1590s, from leader (n.1) + -less. Related: Leaderlessly; leaderlessness.
leadership (n.): 1821, "position of a leader," from leader + -ship. Sense extended by late 19c. to "characteristics necessary to be a leader."
leading (n.1): "lead work; lead covering or frame of lead," mid-15c., from lead (n.1).
leading (n.2): mid-13c., "a bringing by force," from present participle of lead (v.1). Meaning "direction, guidance" is from late 14c. As an adjective, "directing, guiding."
leaf (n.): Old English leaf "leaf of a plant; page of a book," from Proto-Germanic *laubaz (cognates: Old Saxon lof, Old Norse lauf, Old Frisian laf, Dutch loof, Old High German loub, German Laub "foliage, leaves," Gothic lauf), perhaps from PIE *leup- "to peel off, break off" (cognates: Lithuanian luobas, Old Church Slavonic lubu "bark, rind"). Extended 15c. to very thin sheets of metal (especially gold). Meaning "hinged flap on the side of a table" is from 1550s.
leaf (v.): "to turn over (the pages of a book)," 1660s, from leaf (n.). The notion of a book page also is in the phrase to turn over a (new) leaf (1570s). Related: Leafed; leaved; leafing.
leafless (adj.): 1580s, from leaf (n.) + -less.
leaflet (n.): 1787 as a term in botany; 1867 as a term in printing and publication; diminutive of leaf (n.) with -let.
A newspaperman asked the British authorities for a copy of the leaflets distributed in Germany by British airplanes. According to the London Daily Herald, his request was refused with the following answer: "Copies are not given out, as they might fall into enemy hands." ["The Living Age" magazine, Sept. 1939-Feb. 1940]
leafy (adj.): 1550s, from leaf (n.) + -y (2). Related: Leafily; leafiness.
league (n.1): "alliance," mid-15c., ligg, from Middle French ligue "confederacy, league" (15c.), from Italian lega, from legare "to tie, to bind," from Latin ligare "to bind" (see ligament). Originally among nations, subsequently extended to political associations (1846) and sports associations (1879). League of Nations first attested 1917 (created 1919).
league (n.2): distance of about three miles, late 14c., ultimately from Late Latin leuga (source also of French lieue, Spanish legua, Italian lega), said by Roman writers to be from Gaulish. A vague measure (perhaps originally an hour's hike) never in official use in England, where it is recorded more often in poetic than in practical writing.
league (v.): "to form a league," 1610s, from league (n.1). Related: Leagued; leaguing.
leak (v.): "to let water in or out" [Johnson], late 14c., from Middle Dutch leken "to drip, to leak," or from Old Norse leka, both of them related to Old English leccan "to moisten" (which did not survive into Middle English), all from Proto-Germanic *lek- "deficiency" (cognates: Old High German lecchen "to become dry," German lechzen "to be parched with thirst"), from PIE root *leg- "to dribble, trickle." The figurative meaning "come to be known in spite of efforts at concealment" dates from at least 1832; transitive sense first recorded 1859. Related: Leaked; leaking.
leak (n.): late 15c., from leak (v.) or Old Norse cognate leki. Sense of "revelation of secret information" is from 1950. Meaning "act of urination" is attested from 1934 ("Tropic of Cancer"); but the verb meaning "to piss" is from 1590s: "Why, you will allow vs ne're a Iourden, and then we leake in your Chimney." ["I Hen. IV," II.i.22]
leakage (n.): late 15c., from leak (v.) + -age.
leaky (adj.): mid-15c., from leak (n.) + -y (2). Related: Leakiness.
leal (adj.): "loyal, faithful, honest, true," c. 1300, lele, surviving from Middle English as Northern English and Scottish form of loyal. The Land of the leal is Heaven, not Scotland.