Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/242

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hlut, which is peculiar to Teut., passed also into Rom.; comp. Ital. lotto, ‘lottery urn,’ Fr. lot, ‘share,’ OFr. lotir, ‘to cast lots, predict,’ Fr. loterie, ‘lottery.’

los, adj., ‘loose, released,’ from MidHG. lôs, ‘free, unimpeded, bare, plundered, released, wanton, not solid, frivolous’; corresponding to Goth. laus, ‘empty, invalid, vain,’ OIc. ‘loose, free, unimpeded,’ AS. leás, ‘loose, false, deceitful’ (to this is allied E. leas, ‘lie’ and E. -less, only as the second part of a compound; E. loose is borrowed from Scand.), Du. los, OSax. lôs; the adj. form lausa-, common to Teut., is from the root lus, ‘to be loose,’ discussed under verlieren. From the Teut. adj. is derived Span. lozano, ‘merry, cheerful.’ See lösen.

löschen (1.), vb., ‘to extinguish, go out’; in the ModHG. vb. two MidHG. vbs. are comprised, MidHG. lëschen (most frequently erlëschen), str. vb., ‘to cease to burn, go out,’ and the corresponding factitive lęschen, ‘to extinguish’; comp. OHG. lëskan, irlëskan, intrans., and lęsken, trans.; this verbal stem is unknown to the other Teut. languages. The sk of OHG. lëskan is really a suffix of the pres. stem (see dreschen and waschen), as may be inferred from the connection with the Teut. root leg (see liegen); erlöschen is lit. ‘to lie down.’

löschen (2.), vb., ‘to discharge a ship,’ borrowed from the equiv. LG., Du. lossen; comp. Dan. losse, Swed. lossa; the origin and early history of the cognates are unknown (comp. Boot, Bord, and Rahe).

lösen, vb., ‘to loosen, free,’ from the equiv. MidHG. lœsen, OHG. lôsen (*lôsjan); a derivative of the MidHG. and OHG. adj. lôs (see los); comp. Goth. lausjan, ‘to loosen,’ from laus, ‘loose.’

Losung, f., ‘war-cry, watchword,’ from the equiv. late MidHG. losunge, lôȥunge, the first appearance of which in the 15th cent. makes it impossible to determine the correct MidHG. form and its derivation (from Los? or from losen, ‘to hear’? see lauschen).

Lot, n., ‘lead (or soft metal), half an ounce,’ from MidHG. lôt (in OHG. by chance not recorded), n., ‘lead, weight cast from lead’; corresponding to Du. lood, ‘lead, kind of weight,’ AS. leád, E. lead. The old West Teut. *lauda-, n., ‘lead,’ is connected with the equiv. OIr. luáide. —

löten, vb., from the equiv. MidHG. lœten, ‘to solder,’ is a derivative of Lot. —

lötig,

‘of due alloy,’ corresponds in compounds to MidHG. lœtec, ‘of full weight, containing the due proportion of a noble metal.’

Lotse, m., ‘pilot,’ like löschen (2) ModHG. only; borrowed from LG. and Du. loots, loods, ‘pilot.’ Perhaps the word originated in E. in which loadsman, ‘steersman,’ occurs as an old compound of load, AS. lâd, ‘street, way’ (see leiten). With regard to the o in Lotse, see Boot.

Lotter-, in compounds like Lotterbube, ‘vagrant, knave,’ from MidHG. loter, ‘slack, light-minded, frivolous, knave, ne'er-do-well, buffoon,’ OHG. lotar, ‘empty, vain’; comp. AS. loddêre, ‘villain.’ Allied to liederlich.

Löwe, m., ‘lion,’ from the equiv. MidHG. lęwe, lëwe (louwe, löuwe), OHG. lëwo, lęwo (louwo), m.; comp. OSax. and AS. leo, Du. leeuw; undoubtedly a loan-word, since there is no common Teut. and no old Aryan term for ‘lion.’ Lat. leo, however, does not suffice to explain all the G. forms of Middle Europe. OHG. louwo and MidHG. löuwe, ‘lion,’ are specially abnormal (E. lion is derived from Fr. lion). These late occurring OHG. forms with ou are preserved in ModHG. names of places and streets, such as Lauenburg, Lauengasse. The MidHG. fem. lunze (also lewinne), ‘lioness,’ still remains obscure.

Luchs, m., ‘lynx,’ from the equiv. MidHG. and OHG. luhs, m.; corresponding to OSax. lox, Du. losch, AS. lox, m. The s of this OTeut. stem is a suffix, as in Fuchs; hence Swed. lô (Goth. *laúhô), and in the non-Teut. languages Lith. lúszis, Gr. λυγκ-, ‘lynx.’ It is probably related to the root luh in Licht (OIc. ljós, ‘light,’ AS. lîxan, ‘to give light’), since the sharp, gleaming eyes of the lynx may have given rise to the name.

Lücke, f., ‘gap, chasm,’ from MidHG. lücke, lucke, OHG. lucka, from *luggja, f., ‘hole, gap,’ closely allied to locker (MidHG. loger, UpG. luck). The UpG. dials. contain a prim. form *luggia (Swiss lugg, not lukχ), hence OHG. luccha, ‘gap,’ is abnormal. For this reason too the phonetic relation of the word to Loch is obscure.

Luder, n., ‘lure, decoy, bait,’ from MidHG. luoder, n., ‘bait, gluttony, dissolute life, loose woman’ (from an OTeut. lôþra- is derived Fr. leurre, ‘lure, bait’). Its connection with ModHG. laden is probable, since ‘bait’ is the orig. sense.

Lüderlich, see liederlich.