An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, Vol. 2

DOVER BOOKS ON LANGUAGE

FIVE GREAT GERMAN SHORT STORIES/FUNF DEUTSCHE MEISTERERZAHLUNGEN: A DUAL-LANGUAGE BOOK, Stanley Appelbaum (ed.). (Available in U.S. only.) (27619-8)

GREAT GERMAN POETS OF THE ROMANTIC ERA, Stanley Appelbaum (ed.). (28497-2)

INTRODUCTION TO FRENCH POETRY: A DUAL-LANGUAGE BOOK, Stanley Appelbaum (ed.). (26711-3)

INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE PHRASE BOOK IN SIX LANGUAGES, Joseph W. Bator. (22017-6)

FLOWERS OF EVIL/FLEURS DU MAL, Charles Baudelaire. (27092-0)

FRENCH WORD GAMES AND PUZZLES, Sister Chantal. (28481-6)

FALLACIES AND PITFALLS OF LANGUAGE, Morris S. Engel. (28274-0)

FIRST SPANISH READER, Angel Flores (ed.). (25810-6)

SPANISH POETRY/POESIA ESPAÑOLA: A DUAL-LANGUAGE ANTHOLOGY, Angel Flores (ed.). (40171-5)

SPANISH STORIES/CUENTOS ESPAÑOLES: A DUAL-LANGUAGE BOOK, Angel Flores (ed.). (25399-6)

INTRODUCTION TO SPANISH POETRY: A DUAL-LANGUAGE BOOK, Eugenio Florit (ed.). (26712-1)

FRENCH STORIES/CONTES FRANCAIS: A DUAL-LANGUAGE BOOK, Wallace Fowlie. (26443-2)

MODERN FRENCH POETS, Wallace Fowlie (ed.). (27323-7)

GAMES AND PUZZLES FOR ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE, Victoria Fremont and Brenda Flores. (28468-9)

LATIN SELECTIONS/FLORILEGIUM LATINUM, Moses Hadas and Thomas Suits. (27059-9)

ITALIAN STORIES/NOVELLE ITALIANE: A DUAL-LANGUAGE BOOK, Robert A. Hall, Jr. (ed.). (26180-8)

EVERYDAY ENGLISH-RUSSIAN CONVERSATIONS, Leonid Kossman. (29877-9)

FRENCH: HOW TO SPEAK AND WRITE IT, Joseph Lemaître. (20268-2)

INTRODUCTION TO GERMAN POETRY: A DUAL-LANGUAGE BOOK, Gustave Mathieu and Guy Stern (eds.). (26713-X)

BEST SHORT STORIES/LES MEILLEURS CONTES, Guy de Maupassant. (28918-4)

A NEW RUSSIAN-ENGLISH AND ENGLISH-RUSSIAN DICTIONARY, M. A. O’Brien. (20208-9)

MODERN CHINESE: A BASIC COURSE (BOOK ONLY), Faculty of Peking University. (22755-3)

MODERN CHINESE: A BASIC COURSE (CASSETTE EDITION), Faculty of Peking University. (99910-6) 3 cassettes, manual

MODERN CHINESE: A SECOND COURSE, Peking University. (24155-6)

ELEVEN SHORT STORIES/UNDICI NOVELLE: A DUAL-LANGUAGE BOOK, Luigi Pirandello. (28091-8)

INRTODUCTION TO ITALIAN POETRY: A DUAL-LANGUAGE BOOK, Luciano Rebay (ed.). (26715-6)

NINE CENTURIES OF SPANISH LITERATURE/NUEVE SIGLOS DE LITTERATURA ESPAÑOLA, Seymour Resnick and Jeanne Pasmantier. (28271-6)

BEGINNER’S .DICTlONARY OF CHINFSE-JAPANESE CHARACTERS AND COMPOUNDS, Arthur Rose-Innes. (23467-3)

GERMAN: HOW TO SPEAK AND WRITE IT, Joseph Rosenberg. (20271-2)

EASY WAYS TO ENLARGE YOUR GERMAN VOCABULARY, Karl A. Schmidt. (23044-9)

RUSSIAN STORIES: A DUAL-LANGUAGE BOOK, Gleb Struve (ed.). (26244-8)

ELEMENTARY TURKISH, Lewis Thomas. (25064-4)

DICTIONARY OF SPOKEN RUSSIAN, U.S. War Department. (20496-0)

DICTIONARY OF SPOKEN SPANISH, U.S. War Department. (20495-2)

CANDIDE: A DUAL-LANGUAGE BOOK, Voltaire. (27625-2)

EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE: EASY LESSONS IN EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS, Sir E. A. Wallis Budge. (21394-3)

AN ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF MODERN ENGLISH, Ernest Weekley. (21873-2, 21874-0)

CHINESE CHARACTERS, L. Wieger. (21321-8)

ANALYSIS OF CHINESE CHARACTERS, G. D. Wilder and J. H. Ingram. (23045-7)

AN INTRODUCTION TO PORTUGUESE GRAMMAR, Edwin B. Williams. (23278-6)

Copyright © 1967 by Dover Publications, Inc.

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Published in Canada by General Publishing Company, Ltd., 30 Lesmill Road, Don Mills, Toronto, Ontario.

This Dover edition, first published in 1967, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the work originally published in London by John Murray in 1921. The work was originally published in one volume and is now published in two volumes. A new biographical memoir of the author was written by Montague Weekley especially for this Dover edition.

9780486122861

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Table of Contents

DOVER BOOKS ON LANGUAGE

Title Page

Copyright Page

ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY

A CATALOG OF SELECTED DOVER BOOKS IN ALL FIELDS OF INTEREST

ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY

L. Fifty. From Roman symbol resembling, but not ident. with, L.

la¹. Interj. See law².

la² [mus.]. See gamut.

laager. SAfrDu. lager, camp, Du. leger; cf. leaguer.

labarum [hist.]. Imperial standard of Constantine the Great (†337 A.D.), with Christian symbols added to orig. Roman. G. λ βαρoν, of unknown origin.

labdanum. MedL. form of ladanum, resinous gum, L., G. λ δανoν, from λ δoν, mastic, Pers. l dan.

labefaction. From L. labefacere, to cause to totter, labare.

label. OF. (cf. F. lambeau, shred), narrow strip, fillet (her.), ? dim. from OHG. lappa, shred, rag; cf. lappet. Current sense is developed from that of strip of parchment to bear seal attached to document.

labial. MedL. labialis, from labium, lip. Hence labialization (phon.), influence of labial consonant on adjacent vowel, e.g. the -u- of F. buvant, for OF. bev-, L. bib-, is rounded by influence of lip-consonants b and v.

labile. Easily displaced. L. labilis, from labi, to slip. Cf. lapse.

laboratory. MedL. laboratorium, from laborare, to work; cf. F. laboratoire, It. Sp. laboratorio. Elaboratory is also found (17 cent.).

labour. F., L. labor-em, toil, distress, ? cogn. with labare, to sink, totter. For med. sense cf. travail. Pol. sense from c. 1880. Labour lost is in Piers Plowm. With labour of love (1 Thess. i. 3) cf. It. con amore. F. labour, labourer, like their Rom. cognates, are chiefly used of agricultural toil, esp. ploughing. This is also the oldest E. sense of the verb, still conspicuous in AV., and may be the source of naut. to labour, pitch and roll heavily. To labour a point, laboured style, are aphet. for obs. elabour, F. élaborer.

elabourer: to elaborate; labour painfully, travell thoroughly; to worke exactly, doe a thing fully, and finely (Cotg.).

labret. Savage ornament for lip. Dim. from L. labrum.

laburnum. L. (Pliny), cogn. with labrusca, wild vine.

labyrinth. L., G. λαβ ρινθoς, spec. the Cretan labyrinth of Daedalus. See clew. Prob. not of G. origin.

lac¹. Resin. Hind. l kh, Prakrit lakkha, Sanskrit l ksh . Cf. shellac, lake², lacquer.

lac², lakh [Anglo-Ind.]. One hundred thousand, now esp. of rupees. Hind. l kh, Sanskrit laksha. Cf. crore.

Ditta Mull, and Choga Lall, and Amir Nath, and—oh, lakhs of my friends (Kipling, Tods’ Amendment).

lace. OF. laz (lacs), L. laqueus, noose, cf. It. laccio, Sp. lazo (see lasso). With to lace, beat, cf. lash¹, ². Lace, a dash of spirits in coffee, etc., was orig. applied to sugar, app. in sense of accessory; cf. trimmings of a leg of mutton.

Lo, alle thise folk so caught were in hir las

(Chauc. A. 1951).

lacerate. From L. lacerare, to tear, from lacer, torn, G. λακερ ς, from λακ ς, a rent.

lacertian, lacertine. Of the lizard, L. lacerta, whence lacertus, upper arm (cf. muscle).

laches [leg.]. Negligence. F. lâchesse, from lâche, lax, L. laxus. Cf. riches.

lachryma Christi. It. wine. L., for It. lacrima di Cristo, tear of Christ. Cf. Ger. liebfraumilch, Virgin’s milk, a Rhine-wine. Lacry-matory shell, causing partial blindness, is a product of Kultur. L. lacrima, lacruma, is a Sabine form for OL. dacruma, cogn. with G. δ κρυ and E. tear.

laciniate [bot. & zool.]. Jagged. From L. lacinia, lappet, etc.

lack¹. Need. First (12 cent.) as verb. Cf. obs. Du. laken, to be wanting, with LG. cognates, also ON. lakr, inferior. Lacklustre is after As You Like It, ii. 7.

lack². Interj. Only in archaic good lack! Perh. connected with alack (q.v.); but cf. lawks.

lackadaisical. From despondent lack-a-day, for adack-a-day. See alack.

lacker. See lacquer.

lackey, lacquey. In 16 cent. esp. running footman, camp-follower, F. laquais, perh. orig. adj., as in valet laquais (15 cent.); cf. Sp. Port. lacayo. OF. alacays (whence obs. Sc. allakey), Catalonian alacayo, suggest Arab. origin with def. art. prefixed. Sard. allecaju, a striped fish, E. lackey moth, also striped, may point to costume as orig. sense (cf. tiger).

laconic. Of Spartan brevity. G. Λακωνικóς, of Laconia or Lacedaemonia.

lacquer. Earlier (16 cent.) lacker, OF. lacre, Port. lacre, sealing-wax, var. of laca, lac¹.

lacrosse. F. jeu de la crosse, the crook (see crosier). The Canadian game is mentioned in 1763.

lacrym-. See lachrym-.

lacteal. From L. lac, lact-, milk.

lacuna. L., pit, hole, from lacus, lake. Cf. Ger. lücke, lacuna, cogn. with loch, hole. See lagoon.

lacustrine [scient.]. Irreg. formation from L. lacus, lake, after L. paluster, from palus, marsh.

lad. ME. ladde, servant, varlet. ? Corrupt. of ON. lithi, follower, from lith, people, host. I am led to make this unphonetic conjecture by the fact that the surname Summerlad is undoubtedly for ON. sumar-lithi, viking, summer adventurer, a common ON. personal name, found also (Sumerled, Sumerleda, Sumerluda, etc.) in E. before the Conquest. The corresponding Winterlad once existed, but is now app. obs. Ladda also occurs, like boy (q.v.), as surname earlier than as common noun. Another conjecture is that it may be for Norw. askeladd, male Cinderella in Norw. fairy-tales, or tusseladd, nincompoop, in which the second element means hose.

ladanum. See labdanum.

ladder. AS. hlœ d(d)er; cf. Du. ladder, leer (dial. leder), Ger. leiter; cogn. with to lean and ult. with G. κλ μαξ, ladder. Fig. of means of rising, e.g. to draw up (kick down) the ladder, educational ladder, which has been defined as the broad highway into a cul de sac.

lade¹. Mill-race, watercourse. AS. l d, way, course, cogn. with lead², leat, lode.

lade². To load. AS. hladan. Com. Teut. ; cf. Du. Ger. laden, ON. hlatha, Goth. hlathan (in compds.). Now usu. replaced, exc. p.p. laden, by load (q.v.). See also last².

la-di-da, lardy-dardy. ? Imit. of affected, haw-haw, type of speech. Dates from the sixties, but its great vogue was due to a music-hall song of 1880—He wears a penny flower in his coat, La-di-da!

Last May we went to Newmarket, we had a festive day,

With a decentish cold luncheon in a tidy one-horse shay;

With our lardy-dardy garments we were really on the spot

And Charley Vain came out so grand in a tall white chimney-pot (A. C. Hilton, Light Green, 1873).

Ladin [ling.]. Rom. lang. of the Engadine. It. Ladino, L. Latinus. Cf. Romansh.

ladle. AS. hlœdel, from lade², in obs. sense of baling. Cf. shovel.

lady. ME. levedy, AS. hlœ fdige, from hl f, loaf, and an obs. verb, to knead, cogn. with dough (q.v.). Orig. meaning was something like housewife. Cf. lord, dairy. Applied already in AS. to the Holy Virgin; hence Lady Day, Lady chapel, lady-bird (cf. Ger. Marienkäfer, lit. Mary’s chafer), and many plant-names (lady’s garter, bedstraw, etc.). In the oldest of these compds. (e.g. lady smock) the absence of ’s is a survival of the AS. genitive of fem. nouns; cf. Thursday, from Thor (m.), but Friday, from Freia (f.). The lady of a lobster is supposed to resemble in form a seated female figure. The loafer who says Carry your bag, lady? preserves the Chaucerian method of address, which has now given way to the borrowed madam. Old lady of Threadneedle Street, for Bank of England, is due to Cobbett, who likened the directors to Mrs Partington.

lag. As noun and verb from 16 cent. Of obscure origin, but app. connected with delay (q.v.). In childish sense of last it may be an arbitrary perversion of that word (fog, seg,...lag, first, second,...last, in game counting), and this accounts for some meanings. In sense of convict under sentence of transportation it comes from an obs. lag, to carry off, steal (Tusser). It has also been associated with lack.

Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage

(Johnson, Vanity of Human Wishes).

lagan [hist.]. Goods or wreckage lying on bed of sea. OF., MedL. laganum, prob. cogn. with lie¹. Cf. flotsam, jetsam.

lager-beer. Ger. lager-bier, brewed for keeping, from lager, store, ident. in origin with laager, leaguer (q.v.).

lagoon. F. lagune, It. laguna, L. lacuna, from lacus, lake. Esp. in ref. to Venice.

laic. Late L. laicus. See lay³.

laidly [archaic]. Northern var. of loathly.

lair. AS. leger, couch, burial-place, etc., cogn. with lie¹. Cf. laager, leaguer. Now usu. of wild beast, but still applied to a pen or shed for cattle on their way to market.

laird. Sc. form of lord; cf. leddy for lady. Regularly written lard in Privy Council Acts, c. 1550.

laissez-aller, laissez-faire. F., let go, let do. The latter, in pol. sense now somewhat discredited, was originated by F. free-trade economists of 18 cent.

laity. AF. laité, from lay³ (q.v.) after other words in -té, -ty; cf. duty.

lake¹. Of water. F. lac, L. lacus, G. λ κκoς, pit, pond. Prob. confused also with dial. lake, stream, AS. lacu, cogn. with leak. The Lake school (Coleridge, Southey, Wordsworth) is mentioned by Edinburgh Review in 1817. Lakeland was app. coined by Southey.

lake². Pigment. Var. of lac¹ (q.v.).

lakh. See lac².

lam. Cf. AS. lemian, to lame, cripple; but, the verb not being recorded in ME., lam is perh. of imit. origin (cf. bang, slam).

lama. Buddhist priest. Tibetan blama, with silent b-. Quot. 2 (from Yule) shows an odd confusion with llama (q.v.). See also Dalai-lama.

A certain high priest, whom they call Dalae-Lama, or Lama-lamalow (NED. 17 cent.).

The landlord prostrated himself as reverently, if not as lowly, as a Peruvian before his Grand Llama

(Novel reviewed in Academy, May 17, 1879).

lamantin [zool.]. F., manatee (q.v.).

Lamarckian. Of Lamarck, F. biologist (†1829).

lamasery. F. lamaserie, Buddhist monastery, irreg. from lama.

lamb. AS. lamb. Com. Teut. ; cf. Du. lam, Ger. lamm, ON. Goth. lamb. Lamb of God, after John, i. 29, is found in AS. With fig. ironic application in Kirk’s Lambs (Monmouth’s Rebellion), from Paschal Lamb on their banner, cf. Nottingham Lambs, i.e. roughs.

lambent. From pres. part. of L. lambere, to lick, used also of flames playing over surface. ? Later sense associated with G. λ μπειν, to shine.

lambrequin [archaic]. Scarf worn over helmet. In US. scalloped drapery. F., in both senses, obs. Du. lamperkin, dim. of same origin as label.

A pair of Gobelins lambrequins yesterday, at Christie’s, fetched £3780 (Daily Chron. Nov. 6, 1919).

lame. AS. lama. Com. Teut., exc. Goth., which has halts only (see halt¹); cf. Du. lam, Ger. lahm, ON. lame. Orig. of gen. weakness of limbs, paralysis. Cf. Ger. gel hmt, paralysed.

lamella [biol.]. Thin plate. L., dim. of lamina.

lament. F. lamenter, L. lamentari, from lamentum, cry of mourning, from imit. la! Cf. latrare, to bark.

lamia. L., witch sucking children’s blood, G. Λ μια, vampire, etc. In Wyc. (Is. xxxiv. 15, Lam. iv. 3).

lamina. L., plate, layer, whence F. lame, blade, etc.

Lammas [archaic]. Harvest festival (Aug. I) with consecration of loaves. AS. hl fmœsse, loaf mass. With latter Lammas, never, cf. Greek calends.

lammergeyer. Ger. lämmergeier, lambs-vulture. Second element prob. belongs to Ger. gier, greed (see yearn).

lamp. F. lampe, L., G. λαμπ ς, from λ μπειv, to shine. To smell of the lamp was said by Pytheas (Plutarch) of preparation of speeches by Demosthenes. New lamps for old is from story of Aladdin.

lampas¹ [vet.]. Mouth-disease of horses. F. (in OF. also meaning throat, as in humecter le lampas, to wet one’s whistle). App. connected with lamper, to guzzle, nasalized form of laper, to lap (q.v.).

lampas². Chinese flowered silk. Cf. F. lampas, in same sense. Origin obscure. It may be from lampas¹, the pattern being compared to the swellings of the disease (cf. fraise, frill, tripe).

lampion. F., It. lampione, from lampa, lamp.

lampoon. F. lampon, from lampons, let us guzzle, used as refrain of scurrilous songs. Cf. vamose. For F. verb lamper see lampas¹.

lamprey. F. lamproie; cf. MedL. lampreda, whence AS. lampr de, limpet, OHG. lam-preta (lamprete), lamprey. Earlier is MedL. lampetra, explained as lick-rock, L. lambere and petra, from lamprey’s habit of clinging to stones by a sucker. The use of the same word for the limpet (v.s.) makes this plausible. Earliest E. ref. is to death of Henry I.

lance. F., L. lancea, ? of Celt. origin; cf. It. lancia, Sp. lanza, Du. lans, Ger. lanze, etc., partly replacing Teut. spear. Lance-corporal is a half adaptation of obs. lance–pesade, OF. lancepessade (anspessade), It. lancia spezzata, broken lance, exact application of which is unknown. To break a lance is from the tourney. The Lancers (dance) was introduced by Laborde (1836). Lancet is F. dim. lancette.

lanceolate [scient.]. Late L. lanceolatus, from lanceola, small lance.

lancet. See lance.

lancinating. Acute (of pain). After F. lan-cinant, from L. lancinare, to rend, pierce.

land. AS. land. Com. Teut.; cf. Du. Ger. ON. Goth. land; cogn. with Welsh llann, enclosure, church, Breton lann, heath, whence F. lande, moor. With how the land lies (naut.) cf. coast is clear. Landfall, sighting of land, is from fall in sense of hap. The Ir. Land league was founded by Parnell (1879). Landlord, AS. landhl dford, land-owner, has reached sense of innkeeper via that of master of the house, host. For naut. landsman (earlier landman) as opposed to seaman cf. huntsman, streersman, etc. Verb to land is for earlier lend, AS. lendan, from land, Some fig. senses, e.g. to land a fortune, are app. from angling. To land (a person) one in the eye is for earlier lend, used playfully for give. The landing of a flight of stairs is characteristic of our love of naut. metaphor. So also a sea-plane lands on the water.

If thou dost any more, I shall lend thee a knock

(Fielding).

landamman [hist.]. Swiss magistrate. Ger. landamtmann. See ambassador.

landau. First built (18 cent.) at Landau (Bavaria). Ger. term is landauer (wagen). Cf. berline.

Im geöffneten wagen, er war in Landau verfertigt

(Goethe, Hermann und Dorothea, i. 56).

landdrost. SAfrDu., magistrate. Du. drost, steward, bailiff, etc., earlier drossate, cogn. with Ger. truchsess, the royal server, taster, or foretaster (Ludw.), usu. rendered in MedL. by dapifer. The two elements are cogn. with dree and sit.

landgrave. Ger. landgraf, land count.

landloper. Du. landlooper, wastrel, adventurer. Cf. elope, interlope. Also confused with landlubber, for which lubber (q.v.) alone is found earlier.

landrail. Bird. See rail³.

landscape. Earlier (16 cent.) also landskip. Du. landschap; cf. AS. landscipe, land, Ger. landschaft, landscape. See -ship. For introduction of Du. art words cf. easel, lay-figure. Orig. of background of portrait (v.i.).

The sins of other women shew in landscip, far off and full of shadow; hers in statue, neere hand, and bigger in the life (Overbury, Characters).

All that which in a picture is not of the body or argument thereof is landskip, parergon, or by-work

(Blount).

A limit has been reached in this impudent desecration of some of our finest city-scapes

(Obs. Jan. 18, 1920).

landsturm. Ger., land storm, reserve next to landwehr. Orig. Swiss (17 cent.) for the levée en masse.

landtag. Legislative body of Ger. state. Cf. reichstag, diet².

landwehr. Ger., land defence (see weir), theoretically force for home defence.

lane. AS. lane, cogn. with Du. laan, ON. lön, Norw. laan. All orig. in sense of narrow street, as in City.

It is a long lane that has no turning

(Foote, Trip to Calais, 1978).

langrage, langridge [mil.]. Kind of case-shot. On cartridge, for earlier langrel (Capt. John Smith, 1627), chain-shot. Perh. ident. with Sc. langrel, long, lanky.

langrel: is a shot which goes in with a shackle to be shorten’d when put into the piece, and to fly out at length when discharged (Sea Dict. 1708).

lang syne. Sc., long since (q.v.). In E. after Bums’ song (1788).

language. F. langage, from langue, OF. lengue, L. lingua, tongue.

langue d’oc [ling.]. Lang. of South of France, so called from oc, yes, L hoc, this, the North using oïl (oui), L. hoc and OF. derivatives of ille.

languish. F. languir, languiss-, VL. *languire, for langu re, with incept. languescere; cogn. with laxus and ult. with E. slack. Cf. languid, languescent, languor.

laniard. See lanyard.

laniary. Of teeth, canine. L. laniarius, from lanius, butcher, laniare, to tear.

laniferous. From L. lanifer, wool-bearing, from lana, wool.

lank. AS. hlanc, slender, flaccid. Ground-sense of flexible appears in cogn. Ger. lenken, to turn, bend. See flank.

lanner [archaic]. Hawk. F. lanier, perh. ident. with OF. lanier, slothful, as this hawk is called tardiarius in MedL. OF. lanier meant orig. wool-weaver and became a term of reproach in Merovingian times. But the hawk’s name may be L. laniarius, tearing (see laniary), from the bird tearing its prey. At any rate it has been connected with the shrike, or butcher-bird (v.i.). The male is lanneret, orig. a dim. gazza sparviera: a kind of lanaret hauke called a skreeke, or nine murther (Flor.).

lanolin [chem.]. Fatty matter from wool. Coined (1885) by Liebreich from L. lana, wool, oleum, oil.

lansquenet. Mercenary soldier, card-game. F., Ger. landsknecht, soldier of the country, land’s knight, orig. contrasted with Swiss mercenaries. For formation cf. yeoman. Often lanzknecht, lance-knight, as though from lance, and thus wrongly explained by Scott (Quentin Durward, ch. xvii.).

To Hans van Elleran, for the conduict of himself and vij lancequenctes sent northwardes

(Privy Council Acts, 1548).

lantern. F. lanterne, L. lanterna, laterna, from G. λαμπτ ρ, from λ μπειυ, to shine, altered on synon. lucerna. Lanthorn (16 cent.) is folk-etym., from material formerly used as transparent casing. In arch. used of a structure to admit light. Lantern-jaws, having hollowed appearance of old-fashioned lantern, is suggested in Piers Plowm.

Hongur...buffetede the Brutiner [Breton] about bothe his chekes;

He Iokede lyk a lanterne al his lyf after

(A. vii. 163).

lanthanum [chem.]. Discovered and named (1839—41) by Mosander. From G. λαυθ υειυ, to lurk, because hidden in certain rare minerals.

lanthorn. See lantern.

lanuginous [biol.]. From L. lanugo, lanugin-, down, from lana, wool.

lanyard, laniard [naut.]. Readoption (17 cent.) of F. lanière, thong, whence already ME. lainer (Chauc. A. 2504). OF. lasniere, of uncertain origin, but perh. metath. of OF. naslieve, of Teut. origin; cf. Ger. nestel, strap, OHG. nestila, whence Walloon nâle, thong. For -yard cf. halyard, whinyard (also panyard for pannier, in Pepys).

lanyer of lether: lasniere (Palsg.).

Laodicean [theol.]. Lukewarm, after Rev. iii. 15—16. From Λαoδ εια (Latakia), in Asia Minor.

lap¹. Fold, pendent part of garment, as in dims. lappet, lapel. AS. lappa; cf. Du. lap, Ger. lappen, ON. leppr, clout, rag. See also label. In ME. used both of the garment folded at breast and used as receptacle, e.g. lap (bosom) of the Church, and of the skirt part used for nursing child, e.g. brought up in the lap of luxury, lap-dog, lapstone, held on shoemaker’s lap. ? Hence (? or from ME. wlappen, to wrap) verb to lap, enfold, envelope, wrap, whence again noun lap, circuit, as in racing. Cf. overlap, exceeding the circuit. For in the lap of the gods see knee.

lap². To drink with tongue. AS. lapian, with cognates in obs. Du. & OHG.; cf. Ger. löffel (OHG. leffel), spoon. F. laper is from Teut. Cogn. with L. lambere, to lick, G. λ πτειυ. Hence dial. lap, liquor, as in catlap, poor stuff.

lapel. See lap¹.

lapidary. F. lapidaire, L. lapidarius, from lapis, lapid-, stone. In Wyc. With lapidation, pedantic for stoning to death, cf. decollation, defenestration.

lapilli. Fragments of stone ejected by volcano. It., pl. of lapillo, little stone (v.s.).

lapis lazuli. MedL., stone of azure. See azure.

Lapp. Inhabitant and lang. (akin to Finnish) of Lapland, fabled home of wizards dealing in winds and storms; cf. sailors’ opinion of the Finns. Sw. Lapp, perh. orig. term of contempt; cf. MHG. lappe, simpleton. Native name is Sabme.

The opinion is that they were first termed Lappes of their briefe and short speech (Hakl. iii. 404).

lappet. Dim. of lap¹ (q.v.).

lapse. L. lapsus, from labi, laps-, to slip, glide, whence also collapse, elapse, relapse. Cf. lapsus linguae (calami). Also -lapsarian in several Reformation compds. connoting different varieties of Calvinists.

Laputan. Chimerical, esp. of extracting sunbeams from cucumbers. From Swift’s Isle of Laputa (in Gulliver’s Travels), a satire on the Royal Society.

lapwing. ME. lappewinke (Gower), AS. hl apewince, leaper winker, where wink has the sense of tottering, wavering (cf. OHG. winkan, in same sense). From wavering flight. Mod. form is due to folk-etym. (lap¹ and wing).

lar. Usu. in pl. lares (q.v.).

larboard. Altered, on starboard (q.v.), from ME. ladeborde, latheborde, app. from laden, to load. Cf. port, which now usu. replaces it. AS. had bœcbord (cf. F. bâbord), lit. backboard, because behind the steersman. For words altered on their opposites cf. female, grief, render. E. larboard, F. bâbord are now abolished as sounding too like their opposites.

larceny. From F. larcin, OF. larecin, L. latrocinium, from latro, thief. Final -y may be due to felony, perjury, robbery, etc. Petty larceny was orig. theft of property of less value than twelve pence.

larch. Ger. lärche, introduced into E. by Turner (1548), early Teut. loan from L. larix, laric-, whence also Du. lariks, It. larice, Sp. lárice.

lard. F., bacon, L. laridum, cogn. with G. adj. λαρινóς, fat. Hence verb to lard, orig. insert, or stick on, strips of bacon in cooking, make rich (larding the lean earth, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 2), fig. to decorate; cf, interlard. Larder is OF. lardier or lardoir, store-house for bacon.

lardy-dardy. See la-di-da.