Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/236

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lanca, hlanca, ‘hip, loins.’ For further details see under Flanke and Gelenk; it is also perhaps allied to link, lit. ‘oblique’; hence lenken orig. means ‘to direct obliquely or sideways’ (comp. link). It is also thought to be connected with Lith. lènkti, ‘to bend.’

Lenz, m. (Bav. längess, längsing, Swiss langsi), from the equiv. MidHG. lęnze, m. and f., ‘spring’ (from the variants langeȥ, langeȥe); OHG. lęnzo, lęnzī̆n, langiȥ, m.; the loss of the g is normal, as in Bliß and Runzel. Comp. Du. lente, AS. lęncten, m., ‘spring,’ E. Lent. This West Teut. word was probably the term for spring, and Tacitus in the Germania seems to have a dim idea that it was used by the Teutons (OIc. vár, MidE. and Scotch wêr, North Fris. ûrs, wos, represent the North Teut. term primit. allied to Lat. vêr, Gr. ἔαρ, Sans. vasar); for the other observations of Tacitus on the OTeut. divisions of time, comp. Herbst (also Frühling, which has supplanted the old word Lenz in most of the modern dials. of Upper Germany; see an old Aryan term for Lenz under Jahr). The word is peculiar to Teut.; it has not been authenticated in the non-Teut. languages; its prim. meaning is therefore dubious. Some etymologists, misled simply by the similarity of sound, have connected Lenz with lang (Goth. laggs), and opined that it was so named from the lengthening of the days; such a derivation is at all events uncertain.

Lerche, f., ‘lark,’ from the equiv. MidHG. lē̆rche, from lêreche, lêwreche, OHG. lêrahha, f.; it is shown by the equiv. Du. leeuwerik, AS. lâwrice, lœ̂werce, lâwerce, E. lark, Scotch laverock, OSwed. lœrikia, as well as the MidHG. variants lêwerich, lêwerech, lêwerch, that a fuller form would have been *lêwarahha in OHG. The Goth. form cannot be determined with any certainty, nor can we say definitely whether the OHG. and AS. words are compounds or simply unusual derivatives,

lernen, vb., from the equiv. MidHG. lërnen, ‘to learn’ (more rarely ‘to teach’), OHG. lirnên, lërnên, ‘to learn’; comp. AS. leornian, E. to learn, OSax. lînon for Goth. *liznan (pret. *liznôda); an OTeut. derivative of the partic. of the Goth. str. vb. lais, ‘I know,’ discussed under Lehre and lehren; hence lernen means ‘to become experienced, informed.’ The cognates of the stem lis fall into two classes; to one

belongs the sensuous notion ‘to go’ (comp. Leisten, Leiste, Gleise, and leise), the other comprises the words Lehre, lehren, and Goth. leis, ‘knowing.’

leſen, vb., ‘to gather, glean, read,’ from MidHG. lësen, OHG. lësan, ‘to pick out, pick up, read,’ also ‘to narrate, relate.’ Goth. lisan, galisan, and AS. lesan, simply mean ‘to gather, collect’; from the latter E. to lease is derived. So too in earlier OIc. lesa merely signifies ‘to collect, glean.’ There can be no doubt that this was the prim. meaning of HG. leſen; hence it is probable that the common Teut. lesan, ‘to gather up,’ is connected with Lith. lesù (lèsti), ‘to peck, pick up grains of corn.’ There is no relation between Goth. lisan, ‘to gather,’ and lais, ‘I know,’ laisjan, ‘to teach’ (see lehren, and lernen). The development of the meaning ‘to read’ from ‘to gather’ is indeed analogous to that of Lat. lego and Gr. λέγω, which the HG. significations combine. Yet the state of OTeut. culture affords a finer and wider explanation of leſen, ‘legere’; since the modern term Buchſtabe, ‘letter,’ is inherited from OTeut. times, when runic signs were scratched on separate twigs, the gathering of these twigs, which were strewn for purposes of divination, was equiv. to ‘reading (leſen) the runes.’ Hence OTeut. lesan expressed the action described by Tacitus (Germ. 10) as “surculos ter singulos tollit;” in pre-hist. G. it also signified “sublatos secundum impressam ante notam interpretatur.” It is worthy of remark too that the OTeut. dials. have no common term for ‘to read,’ and this proves that the art was not learnt until the Teutons had separated into the different tribes. It is also certain that runic writing was of foreign, probably of Italian origin. The Goth used the expressions siggwan, ussiggwan, ‘to read,’ the Englishman AS. rœ̂dan, E. to read; the former probably signified orig. ‘loud delivery,’ the latter ‘to guess the runic characters.’

Letten, m. ‘(potter's) clay,’ from MidHG. lëtte, OHG. lëtto, m., ‘loam’ (ë is due to the Bav. and Alem. dials.); to this is probably allied the Ic. graded form leþja, ., ‘loam, dirt.’ It is connected by some etymologists with Lat. lŭtum, n., ‘mud, dirt,’ and by others, less probably, with OPruss. laydis, ‘loam,’ whose diphthong, compared with the a of the Teut. word, presents a difficulty.