twelfth letter, Roman form of Greek lambda, which is from the Semitic lamed. The shape of the Roman letter is an early one in Greek, adopted in Italic before it was superseded in Greek by the inverted form which became the Greek lambda. In some words (ladder, lady, laughter, leap, listen, lid) it represents Old English hl-. As "building or extension in the shape of an L" from 1843. As an "alphabetic abbreviation" [OED] of elevated railway, from 1881 (compare el). The Three Ls in nautical navigation were "lead" (for sounding), "latitude" and "lookout."
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to let go, slacken."
It forms all or part of: alas; allegiance; lassitude; last (adj.) "following all others;" late; latter; lenient; lenitive; lenity; let (v.) "allow;" let (n.) "stoppage, obstruction;" liege.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Greek ledein "to be weary;" Latin lenis "mild, gentle, calm," lassus "faint, weary;" Lithuanian lėnas "quiet, tranquil, tame, slow," leisti "to let, to let loose;" Old Church Slavonic lena "lazy," Old English læt "sluggish, slow," lætan "to leave behind."
abbreviation for Los Angeles, attested from 1949.
Anglo-Saxon interjection of mild wonder or surprise, or grief; "oh, ah, indeed, verily."
musical note (sixth note of the diatonic scale), early 14c., see gamut. It represents the initial syllable of Latin labii "of the lips." In French and Italian it became the name of the musical note A, which is the sixth of the natural scale (C major).
fem. form of the French definite article, used in English in certain phrases and sometimes added ironically to a woman's name with a suggestion of "prima donna" (OED examples begin 1860s). See le.
shortened form of laboratory, 1895.
the imperial standard adopted by Constantine, from Greek labaron, which is of unknown origin.
"process of shaking; downfall, overthrow," 1610s, noun of action from Latin labefactus, past participle of labefacere "to cause to totter, shake," literally and figuratively; also "to overthrow," from labare "to totter, stand unsteadily, be ready to fall, begin to sink, give way" (which is perhaps related to labi "to glide, slip, slide, sink, fall; see lapse (n.)) + facere "to make, do" (from PIE root *dhe- "to set, put").
Alternative labefactation (from Latin labefactitionem "a shaking, loosening," noun of action from past-participle stem of labefacere) is attested from 1775. As a verb, labefact is from 1540s, labefy 1620s, labefactate from 1650s.
c. 1300, "narrow band or strip of cloth" (oldest use is as a technical term in heraldry), from Old French label, lambel, labeau "ribbon, fringe worn on clothes" (13c., Modern French lambeau "strip, rag, shred, tatter"). This is perhaps, with a diminutive suffix, from Frankish *labba or some other Germanic source (such as Old High German lappa "flap"), from Proto-Germanic *lapp-, forming words for loose cloth, etc. (see lap (n.1)).
Meanings "dangling strip of cloth or ribbon used as an ornament in dress," also "strip attached to a document to hold a seal" both are from early 15c. General meaning "tag, sticker, slip of paper" affixed to something to indicate its nature, contents, destination, etc. is from 1670s. Hence "circular piece of paper in the center of a gramophone record," containing information about the recorded music (1907), which led to the meaning "a recording company" (1947).
