"L" Word Origins

loyalism

Origin

From loyal + -ism. Piecewise doublet of legalism.

loyalist

Origin

Formed from "loyal" plus the agent suffix "-ist."

loyally

Origin

From "loyal" plus the adverb suffix "-ly."

loyalty

Old French

From Old French "loialté," built from "loial" (loyal) plus the noun-forming suffix "-té."

lozenge

Origin

From Middle English losenge, from Old French losenge (“rhombus”), of uncertain origin.

Ls

Origin

An abbreviation of "license."

Ltd

English

An abbreviation of "limited", short for limited liability.

lu

Chinese

A romanization of Chinese 路 (lù, “route”)

Luan

Origin

Borrowed from Mandarin 欒 /栾 (Luán).

Luann

Origin

A coinage from Lu + Ann.

Luanne

Origin

From Lu + Anne.

luau

Origin

Borrowed from Hawaiian "lūʻau," originally the name of a taro-leaf dish that came to name the whole feast.

lubber

Origin

From Middle English, perhaps from Old French lobeor (“swindler”), or of Scandinavian origin, compare dialectal Swedish lubber. The grasshopper was likely so called after sense 1 (“a clumsy or lazy person”).

Lubbock

Origin

A variant of Lubeck/Lübeck.

lube

Origin

A shortened, casual form of "lubricant."

lubish

Origin

From Middle Low German lübsch or Middle Dutch lubesch, both ("of Lübeck"). Compare German lübisch (“of Lübeck”).

lubric

Origin

From Latin lūbricus.

lubricant

Origin

From the verb "lubricate" plus the suffix "-ant," which marks something that performs an action.

lubrication

Origin

From "lubricate" plus the noun-forming suffix "-ion."

lubricious

Origin

Learned borrowing from Latin lūbricus (“slippery”). Doublet of lubricous.

Luca

Ancient Greek

From Italian Luca, from Latin Lūcās, ultimately from Ancient Greek Λουκᾶς (Loukâs).

Lucas

Ancient Greek

From Latin Lucas, from Ancient Greek Λουκᾶς (Loukâs). See the Greek entry for more.

Lucca

Italian

Borrowed from Italian Lucca.

luce

Latin

From Old French "lus/luis," ultimately from Latin "lucius," meaning pike.

lucent

Origin

From Latin lūcentem, the present participle of lūcēre (“to shine”).

Lucerne

French

From French "luzerne"; the Swiss city of Lucerne shares the spelling but not a confirmed common origin.

Luci

Latin

A modern nonstandard spelling of Lucy, ultimately from Latin lux, "light".

Lucia

Latin

Latinate variant of Lucy, feminine form of the Roman praenomen Lūcius.

Lucian

Latin

From Latin Lūcianus, a derivative of the Roman praenomen Lūcius, from lūx ("light").

Luciana

Italian

From Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish Luciana. By surface analysis, Lucia /Lucie /Lucy + -ana.

lucid

Latin

From Latin "lucidus," meaning bright or clear, from "luceo," to shine.

lucidity

Latin

From French "lucidité," ultimately from Latin "luciditas."

Lucifer

Latin

From Latin "lucifer," literally "light-bearer," from "lux" (light) and "fero" (to carry). Its use as a name for Satan comes from a passage in Isaiah traditionally read as referring to a fallen angel.

luciferous

Origin

Borrowed from Latin lucifer (“light-bearing”) (from lux, lucis (“light”)) + the suffix -ous.

lucifugous

Origin

From Latin lucifugus (“light-fleeing”), from lucere (“to shine”) + fugere (“to flee”). By surface analysis, luci- + -fugous.

Lucilla

Latin

From Latin Lūcilla, feminine diminutive form of the praenomen Lūcius.

Lucinda

Origin · 1605

Derived from Lucia with the suffix -inda, first used by Cervantes in Don Quixote (1605).

Lucious

Origin

Variant of Lucius.

Lucius

Latin

From Latin Lūcius, from lux ("light").

luck

Germanic · 1400

Borrowed into English around the 1400s, probably as a gambling term, from Middle Dutch luc — a shortened form of gheluc, "good fortune." It has cousins across Germanic languages, including German Glück and Dutch geluk, both meaning "luck" or "happiness."

luckes

Origin

From the given name Luke.

luckett

Origin

From Middle English [Term?], a diminutive of the given name Luke.

luckman

Origin

From the given name Luke + man, "servant of Luke".

Lucknow

Origin

Borrowed from Hindustani लखनऊ (lakhnaū).

lucks

Origin

From the given name Luke.

lucky

Middle English

From Middle English lukky, built from luck plus the adjective-forming suffix -y — essentially "full of luck."

lucrative

Latin

From French lucratif, from Latin lucrativus ("profitable"), ultimately from lucrum, meaning "gain" or "profit."

lucre

Origin

From Middle English lūcre, lucor, lucour, lucur (“gain in money, profit; money; wages; illicit gain; advantage, benefit”), from Old French lucre or Latin lucrum (“advantage, profit; love of gain, avarice”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂w- (“gain, profit”) + *-tlom (variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting tools or instruments)).