Lenis. L. soft. The soft breathing is an unaspirate one, such as a in and, not ha in hand.
Letter. L. litera; Sax. bóc-staf, a book-staff. It is bad that the same word letter should be used for a letter of the alphabet and an epistle, the old English word for which is a brief, as it is in German and West Friesic. It was also the name of the king’s letter for gathering of help-money in the church; though now it is the name only of a barrister’s letter of instruction.
Lingual. L. lingua, the tongue. Belonging to the tongue.
Literature. Book-lore.
Lithography. Stone-printing.
Locative (case). L. locus, stead, place. The stead or stow-case; as, ‘In London,’ ‘At church.’
Logic. Redelore.
-m, -om, -um. A word-ending, a form of the Greek one -ma, as in prag-ma, from prasso; and of the Latin -men, as in flu-men, from fluo. Words so ended meant mostly the outcome of the time-word, and were at first thing-names; and so as time-words they were, as most of them yet are, weak ones. From roots ending, I believe, in -ing came[5]
| Blow | Bloom. |
| Cling (root) | Clome (clay or clayen pottery), clam, climb. |
| Cring (root) (to bend) | Crome (a dung-pick with bent prongs). |
| Dunt, ding(root) | Dam, dim, dumb, damp (fire). |
| Go (with quick stirrings), —ging (root) | Game. |
| Glow | Gleam, gloom. |
| Grow | Groom (a growing or now full-grown youth?). |
| Hollow | Haulm, helm, helmet. |
| Harry | Harm. |
| Lose, lithe, (ling r.) | Limp, limb, lime, loam. |
| Shriek | Scream. |
| Sew | Seam. |
| Slack,—sling (root) | Slam (a slackness or looseness in matter or going; slam of a gate; a slack swing, as unguided by a hand). |
| Slack | Slime, slim. |
| Stiff or stout | Stem. |
| Stray or Stretch on | Stream.[6] |
| Tang, ting (reach on) | Team, time, and timer, timber (a very ontanging stick). |
| Thick | Thumb (the thick finger). |
Machine. An old English word for a machine is ginny or jinny which seems to be a fellow-stem to gin, and to mean to go, not as in onfaring (locomotion), but as in the way of a machine.