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E 0526 LAZY
The word " lazy " is of Germanic origin .
H 0528 י א
ל *, ה א ל
Concept of root : to
be(come) tired
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Hebrew word
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pronunciation
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English meanings
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י א ל
*, ה א ל
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la’à, lé’é,lé’à, *lé i
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to
be(come) tired, give up
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Related English words
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lazy
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Comparison between European words and
Hebrew
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Languages
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Words
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Pronunciation
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English meanings
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Similarity in roots
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Hebrew
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ה א ל ,
*י א ל
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la’à, lé’é, lé’à, *lé’i
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to be(come)
tired
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l (‘e). .
l . y
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Greek
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ληδω
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lèdo
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to be tired
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l . d
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Latin
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lassus
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lassus
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tired, exhausted
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l . s
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Old Norse
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luinn
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luinn
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exhausted
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l (ui) .
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Icelandic
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lui
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lui
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exhaustion
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l (ui)
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Dutch;
Middle Dutch
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lui;
loy, loey,
leuy
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lui;
loy, luy, leuy
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lazy;
lazy, indolent,
inert, slow
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l (ui);
l (oy),
l (uy)
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English
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lazy
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lazy
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l . z
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Proto-Semitic *LA'À --- *LUY- Indo-European
We have chain-linked the meanings of tiredness, slowness and lazyness . The older version of the Hebrew root, with a "yod", is made probable by the use of this letter in verbal forms of the past tense of
the actual verb . Sisterwords of the Hebrew ones of this entry give interesting support for our hypothesis of common origin . We quote Arabic "laa'y" that says " to be hesitating, slow", which comes nearer to Germanic .
Note:
- English "lazy" is of unknown origin, but it is considered as possibly connected to the Nordic and Dutch words, that have their cousins in Low German.
Note:
- Hebrew and Germanic. We see a vocalized and diphthongized W, in Hebrew an Aleph "(א)" and in Greek a dental D, that is considered to have been present also in Latin, where "lassus" may have been derived from "ladtos".
Note:
- Proto-Semitic. Aramaic presents a "ל א י , leì'ì", Syriac "ל א א , la'à" and "ל א י , li'ì" , all meaning "he was weary, tired". Arabic shows a variation on the basic message with "laā'y = was slow, hesitating". Proto-Semitic probably had the root as seen in Hebrew : "*ל א ה , L Aleph H (accentuated vowel)". A sister root, that is also present in Hebrew, with "L Hé (consonant) Hé (accentuated vowel)" may not have been in use in Proto-Semitic.
Note:
- Proto-Germanic. It is useful to have a look at a.o. Old English and Middle Dutch in order to better understand the situation in Germanic. Middle Dutch has two groups of words, one without an "S" and the other with an "S" or "T" . With "S" there is "las = weary, exhausted" and "lasch = "weak, slack". But there also exists "lat = lazy, slow, listless" and this is also present in Norwegian and Swedish "lat", with Danish having "lad". Old High German had "laz" and Gothic "lats", both saying "lazy, indolent", in modern German "lässig".
Old English "læt = slack, lax, negligent" is certainly related . Usually as the original form is seen "*L A D-", that probably was also present in Proto-Germanic. It should not be seen as the same word as English "late" and its sister words. The existing hypothesis of a form "*L Ā T-" is convincing.
Without a final consonant as for example "S", besides Middle Dutch one finds not surprisingly Low German "loie, loi" and Frisian "loai". Even if this group has a limited territory, its similarity with Semitic means that it probably was present as well in Proto-Germanic, as "*L U Y".
Note:
- Indo-European . An existing hypothesis is "*L Ē D-" or "*L Ā D-", of which the second one is the most probable: "*L Ā D-" . Still the root without "D" , similar to Semitic and present in Low German and Dutch, may well have lived through Indo-European : "*L Ū Y-".
Latin besides "lassus" is seen as coming from "*lad-tos". There is also the verb "lasso, lassare = to tire, wear out".
Albanian contributes with "lod; loðem = tire out; become tired".
Russian for "laziness" uses a word that has a consonant " N " added and has no " D " : "лень, ljenj = laziness, indolence". There are several words with the same root and other Slavic languages have cognates. This can be seen as a specific Slavic development.
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| Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 03/11/2012 at 10.28.12 |
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