Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/233

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Scand. and AS. poetry coined many similar circumlocutions for ‘body.’ In AS. poetry comp. flœ̂sc-homa, ‘flesh-covering,’ also bân-fœt, lit. ‘bone-vessel,’ bânhûs, lit. ‘bone-house,’ bânloca, lit. ‘bone-cage,’ bâncofa, lit. ‘bone-dwelling,’ as synonyms of AS. lîc-homa, ‘body.’ Hence it is quite possible that OTeut. lîk-hamo was adopted from poetry in ordinary prose.

leicht, adj., ‘light’ from the equiv. MidHG. lîht, lîhte, OHG. lîhti; corresponding to Du. ligt, AS. lîht, leóht, E. light, OIc. léttr, Goth. leihts, ‘light.’ The further cognates of the word are uncertain, since there are too many adjs. in the allied languages closely resembling leicht both in sense and sound. Some etymologists derive Lat. lĕvis, ‘light,’ from lêvis, lenhvis, in order to connect it with the common Teut. adj. as well as with Gr. ἐλαχύς, ‘petty, small,’ Lith. lengwùs, lèngwas, ‘light’; in that case lîht would represent linht, lenht. If leicht be connected with ModHG. gelingen, it might be compared with Gr. ᾿ἐλαφρὸς, ‘light, nimble’ (see lungern). No explanation has been hitherto quite satisfactory, since in the non-Teut. languages there is no adj. corresponding in form to G. leicht. — In E. lights (see Lunge) is also connected with the adj. light.

Leid, n., ‘harm, hurt, sorrow,’ from MidHG. leit (d), n., ‘affliction, pain, evil’ (as adj. ‘afflicting’), OHG. leid, n., ‘that which causes affliction; harm, pain’ (leid, adj., ‘afflicting, repugnant, hateful’). Comp. AS. lâþ, ‘offence, wrong, hostile, hateful, inimical’; E. loath, adj., to loathe, OIc. leiþr, ‘hostile, hateful.’ Probably the abstr. subst. is orig. nothing more than the neut. of the adj., which passed into Rom. at a very early period (comp. Ital. laido, ‘ugly,’ Fr. laid). See further under leiden and leider.

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.

leider, interj., ‘alas!’ from the equiv. MidHG. leider, OHG. leidôr; prop. a comparat. of the OTeut. adj. mentioned under Leid. With regard to the possibility of its being allied to OHG. lêwes, lês, ‘alas!’ comp. leiden.

Leier, f., ‘lyre,’ from the equiv. MidHG. lîre, OHG. lîra, f.; from Lat. and Gr. lyra, with the Byzantine pronunciation of the y current in the Middle Ages, but with an abnormal change of quantity (as in Kreuz, Schule, and Lilie). The lyre of the Middle Ages, except when imported, was essentially different from the antique lyre; it was an instrument of the same sort as a guitar, and was played by a wheel turned by a winch; hence it was something very like a barrel-organ (hurdy-gurdy). Through the influence of classical studies, the term Leier is now applied again to the antique instrument without entirely supplanting the earlier meaning (comp. Leierkasten). Comp. also Ital. lira, Fr. lyre, E. lyre, and Du. lier.

leihen, vb., ‘to lend, borrow,’ from MidHG. lîhen, OHG. lîhan, str. vb., ‘to take on credit,’ rarely ‘to give on credit’; so too Goth. leihwan, AS. león (contracted from