Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/239

Lil ,’ also ‘lying-in, childbirth, In  epic poets aorist forms of a verb formed from a root legh, λεχ, have been preserved, λέκτο, λέξατο, &c., with the meaning ‘to lie down, encamp.’ The  is also wanting in, where, however, lectus, ‘bed,’ a derivative of the root legh, is retained. lęgą (lešti), ‘to lie down,’ lezą (ležati), ‘to lie.’ In East Aryan the root is unknown. ,, and.  ,, ‘lily,’ from the  lilje,  lilja, ; borrowed in  from  lîlia, ; the brevity of the i of the accented syllable in the  word and also in  ( lilie,  lily) is the same as in  and , from  lînea and lîcium. .  ', ',, ‘gentle,’ from linde,  lindi, , ‘soft, gentle, tender, mild’ ( *linþs is wanting); corresponding to  lîthi,  lîþe, ‘mild, friendly, soft,’  lithe. In an exact correspondence is not found; the term used is linr, ‘friendly, mild, soft’ (whence  lines is borrowed), which with  len, ‘soft,’  lenig, ‘pliant,’ points to the fact that the dental of the  and  words is a suffix. Hence lin- is the root from which are formed in  af-linnan, ‘to go away, yield,’  linna, ‘to cease,’  linnan, ‘to cease, part from, lose,’  bilinnan, ‘to relax, leave off.’ Therefore the  root meant  ‘yielding disposition.’   lěnŭ, ‘lazy,’  lên-i-s, ‘gentle, mild,’ and lentus, ‘flexible, pliant.’  ,, ‘linden, lime-tree,’ from the  linde,  linta, ; corresponding to  linde,  lind,   lind, linden, linden-tree ( lime-tree = ‘linden’ is obscure);  lind, , ‘lime-tree’; a common  term for ‘linden,’ also, as an  warlike term, ‘shield,’  ‘linden shield,’ Its earlier history is obscure;   , ‘bast,’ and  linde, ‘girdle,’ derivatives of , give no clue to the  meaning of the word. If we consider the change in meaning to which names of trees have been subject (see under, , and ), we might assume that is related to  ἐλάτη (from lentâ), ‘pine tree, white pine’; it can scarcely be connected with  lentus, ‘flexible’ , as if the inner bark of the linden were used at an early period for cords.   ,, ‘winged serpent or dragon,’ borrowed, with the revival of  literature in the last century, from  lintwurm,  lindwurm, , ‘dragon’ ( also ). The first component is identical in meaning with the second, which is only an explanation of the obscure term, which was no longer understood;  lind, lint, ‘serpent’;  linnr, ‘serpent’ (for *linþr). is a similar compound.   ,, ‘line, lineage,’ from the  linie, , from  lînea, , with a change of quantity. It occurs even in.  ,, ‘left,’ from the  linc, , with the variant lęnc ( -kes); the form with sl is probably quite as old as that with initial l ( , , , and ). In only lęncha,, ‘left hand,’ is recorded; the  is rendered by winistar,  winster, in  lërz, lërc, and tenk,  slinc (this is doubtless a primitive variant of link, as is shown by the analogies under , , , and ); in  left ( *lyfte?  lucht). In the  there are no other correspondences of ; perhaps   is allied to this word with the  meaning ‘oblique, awry’;  signifies  ‘to direct obliquely.’  may also be a cognate.  ,, a form for , ‘linen,’ which was introduced in the last century into Upper Germany through the Westphalian linen trade. lînîn is still used as an, ‘flaxen, linen.’   ,, ‘lentil, lens,’ from the  linse,  linsi, , with the  and  variant linsîn. It is not certain whether the word comes from lens,, because other borrowed terms are based not on the  of the  word ( , , yet also ), but on the stem appearing in the oblique cases; hence  lent- (as is shown by  lens) ought to have appeared as *linz- in. An analogous case of an apparent permutation of nt to ns is furnished by flint,  to  flins,  vlins (see ); these difficulties are not yet solved. , however, testifies that we are not compelled to assume that was borrowed from. also lęšta (from *lentja),  lènszis, ‘lentil.’   ,, ‘lip,’ unknown to and ; it has appeared in the written language since Luther. It is the and