An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/leiden
leiden, verb, ‘to suffer, endure, bear,’ from the equivalent Middle High German lîden, Old High German lîdan, strong verb. It is ordinarily identified with an Old Teutonic strong verb lîþan, ‘to go’ (compare leiten); compare Old High German lîdan, ‘to go, proceed,’ Anglo-Saxon lîþan, Gothic leiþan, ‘to go.’ It is assumed that lîþan, from the meaning ‘travelling to a foreign land (alilandi, whence Modern High German elend) and across the sea’ (lîþan is frequently used of a voyage), has acquired the sense of ‘indisposition, enduring, and suffering.’ This explanation is too artificial, and when it is urged in its favour that the latter meaning does not occur in Gothic, Old Saxon, and Anglo-Saxon, the fact is overlooked that it is assumed as primitively by the common Teutonic adjective laiþa-, ‘painful, repugnant, hostile,’ which is wanting only in Gothic (compare Leid). It might be conceivable if a compound of liþan, ‘to go,’ formed by prefixing a verbal particle, had assumed within the historic period the meaning ‘to suffer,’ but that the simple verb evolved such a sense immediately from ‘to go’ in primitively Teutonic times is scarcely credible. The proof of this lies in the fact that the derivative laiþa-, from the stem of lîþan, is more widely diffused, and is recorded at an earlier period. Thus we are led to the originally meaning ‘to put up with what is repugnant,’ and the early existence of the adjective and substantive discussed under Leid causes no surprise. For the further history of the word the Old High German interject. lêwes, lês, ‘oh! alas!’ appears to be valuable; in form it is the genitive of a noun, and presumes Gothic laiwis, from a stem lai-wa-. Since it is used in a way similar to High German leider, they are probably cognate. Thus the root would be lai, by gradation lî; the dental of lîdan, leiden, was probably therefore a part of the present stem originally. See the following word.