| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
Appendix I
Indo-European Roots |
| |
| ENTRY: | leg- |
| DEFINITION: | To collect; with derivatives meaning “to speak.” Oldest form *le -, becoming *leg- in centum languages.
Derivatives include leech1, lecture, legend, intelligent, sacrilege, loyal, and logic.
1. Perhaps Germanic *l kjaz, enchanter, one who speaks magic words. leech1, from Old English l ce, physician. 2. lectern, lection, lecture, legend, legible, legion, lesson; coil1, collect1, diligent, elect, florilegium, intelligent, neglect, prelect, sacrilege, select, sortilege, from Latin legere, to gather, choose, pluck, read. 3. lexicon, logion, –logue, –logy; alexia, analects, anthology, catalog, dialect, dialogue, dyslexia, eclectic, eclogite, eclogue, horologe, lectotype, prolegomenon, from Greek legein, to gather, speak, with o-grade derivative logos, a gathering, speech (see also 6 below for derivatives independently built to logos). 4. Suffixed form *leg-no-. ligneous, ligni-, from Latin lignum, wood, firewood (< “that which is gathered”). 5. Possibly lengthened-grade form *lg-. a. legal, legist, legitimate, lex, loyal; legislator, privilege, from Latin lx, law (? < “collection of rules”); b. legacy, legate; colleague, collegial, delegate, relegate, from Latin denominative lg re, to depute, commission, charge (< “to engage by contract”). (It is also possible, but uncertain, that Latin lx comes, like English law, from a form meaning “that which is set or laid down,” from legh-.) 6. Suffixed o-grade form *log-o-. logic, logistic, logo-, Logos, –logy; analogous, apologue, apology, Decalogue, epilogue, homologous, logarithm, paralogism, prologue, syllogism, from Greek logos, speech, word, reason. (Pokorny le- 658.) |
| |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
