le

French masc. definite article (including the old neuter), fem. la, from Latin ille "he, that," used in Late Latin and Medieval Latin as the definite article. Cognate with Spanish el. Latin ille "that," illa "by that way, there," replaced Old Latin olle/ollus, perhaps by analogy with iste [de Vaan]; from PIE *hol-no- "that, yonder."

Entries linking to le

el (n.)

American English abbreviation of elevated railroad, first recorded 1906 in O. Henry. See L.

a la

from French à la, literally "to the," hence "in the manner of, according to," from à, from Latin ad "to" (see ad-) + la, fem. of definite article le "the," from Latin ille (fem. illa; see le). Attested in English in French terms from fashion or cookery since late 16c.; since c. 1800 used in native formations with English words or names.

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Trends of le

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alarm

late 14c., "a call to arms in the face of danger or an enemy," from Old French alarme (14c.), from Italian all'arme "to arms!" (literally "to the arms"); this is a contraction of phrase alle arme. Alle is itself a contraction of a "to" (from Latin ad; see ad-) + le, from Latin il

alligator

1560s, "large carnivorous reptile of the Americas," lagarto, aligarto, a corruption of Spanish el lagarto (de Indias) "the lizard (of the Indies)," from Latin lacertus (see lizard), with Spanish definite article el, from Latin ille (see le). The modern form of the English word is

gamin

Un groupe d'enfants, de ces petits sauvages vanu-pieds qui ont de tout temps battu le pavé de Paris sous le nom éternel de...gamins, et qui, lorsque nous étions enfants aussi, nous ont jeté des pierres à tous, le soir, au sortir de classe, parce...

qui vive

1726, in on the qui vive "on the alert," from French être sur le qui vive "be on the alert," from the phrase qui voulez-vous...(The answer might be Vive la France, Vive le roi, etc.)....

intramercurial

The idea originated in France in the 1840s with Urbain Le Verrier, who later became director of the Paris Observatory....about it in 1859 when a French doctor named Lescarbault claimed to have tracked it crossing the Sun's disk and convinced Le...

morale

persons engaged in a hazardous enterprise) is recorded by 1831, from confusion with French moral (Modern French distinguishes le...

jostle

.)) + frequentative suffix -le (see -el (3)). According to OED, the usual spelling 17c.-18c. was justle....

Babylon

mid-14c., Babilon, representing the Greek rendition of Akkadian Bab-ilani "the gate of the gods," from bab "gate" + ilani, plural of ilu "god" (compare Babel). The Old Persian form, Babiru-, shows characteristic transformation of -l- to -r- in words assimilated from Semitic. The

sedulous

"diligent in application or pursuit of an object," 1530s, from Latin sedulus "attentive, painstaking, diligent, busy, zealous," probably from sedulo (adv.) "sincerely, diligently," from sedolo "without deception or guile," from se- "without, apart" (see se-) + dolo, ablative of d

osmosis

"the tendency of fluids to pass through porous partitions and mix with each other; the diffusion of fluids through membranes," 1867, Latinized from osmose (1854), a shortened form of endosmose "inward passage of a fluid through a porous septum" (1829), from endo- "inward," which

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updated on October 15, 2021

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Dictionary entries near le

lazy

lazybones

lazzarone

LCD

-le

lea

leach

leachate

lead

leaded