An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/leiden
leiden, vb., ‘to suffer, endure, bear,’ from the equiv. MidHG. lîden, OHG. lîdan, str. vb. It is ordinarily identified with an OTeut. str. vb. lîþan, ‘to go’ (comp. leiten); comp. OHG. lîdan, ‘to go, proceed,’ AS. lîþan, Goth. leiþan, ‘to go.’ It is assumed that lîþan, from the meaning ‘travelling to a foreign land (alilandi, whence ModHG. 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 Goth., OSax., and AS., the fact is overlooked that it is assumed as primit. by the common Teut. adj. laiþa-, ‘painful, repugnant, hostile,’ which is wanting only in Goth. (comp. 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 primit. Teut. 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 orig. meaning ‘to put up with what is repugnant,’ and the early existence of the adj. and subst. discussed under Leid causes no surprise. For the further history of the word the OHG. interject. lêwes, lês, ‘oh! alas!’ appears to be valuable; in form it is the gen. of a noun, and presumes Goth. laiwis, from a stem lai-wa-. Since it is used in a way similar to HG. 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.