An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Leid

by Friedrich Kluge

Leid, neuter, ‘harm, hurt, sorrow,’ from Middle High German leit (d), neuter, ‘affliction, pain, evil’ (as adjective ‘afflicting’), Old High German leid, neuter, ‘that which causes affliction; harm, pain’ (leid, adjective, ‘afflicting, repugnant, hateful’). Compare Anglo-Saxon lâþ, ‘offence, wrong, hostile, hateful, inimical’; English loath, adjective, to loathe, Old Icelandic leiþr, ‘hostile, hateful.’ Probably the abstract substantive is originally nothing more than the neuter of the adjective, which passed into Romance at a very early period (compare Italian laido, ‘ugly,’ French laid). See further under leiden and leider.