1590s, "act of lacerating;" 1630s, "breach or rend made by tearing;" from French lacération, from Latin lacerationem (nominative laceratio) "a tearing, rending, mutilation," noun of action from past-participle stem of lacerare "tear to pieces, mangle; slander, abuse" (see lacerate).

"to tear roughly," early 15c., from Latin laceratus, past participle of lacerare "tear to pieces, mangle," figuratively, "to slander, censure, abuse," from lacer "torn, mangled," from PIE root *lek- "to rend, tear" (source also of Greek lakis "tatter, rag," lakizein "to tear to pieces;" Latin lacinia "flap of a garment," lancinare "to pierce, stab;" Russian lochma "rag, tatter, scrap;" Albanian l'akur "naked"). Figurative sense in English is from 1640s. Related: Lacerated; lacerating.

"lizard-like," 1841, from Latin lacerta (see lizard). Other adjectives from the early years of dinosaur paleontology were lacertian (1841), lacertilian (1848). In decorative arts, lacertine work (1854) consists of intertwined serpents.

1831, originally of boots, from the verbal phrase, from lace (v.) + up (adv.).

also lacewing, type of insect, 1847; see lace (n.) + wing (n.). Earlier was lace-winged fly (1826), and the shorter for might be from this.

"negligence in performance of legal duty," 1570s, earlier simply "slackness, negligence, want of zeal" (late 14c.), from Anglo-French laches, Old French lachesse "lawlessness, remissness," from Old French lasche "lax, remiss" (Modern French lâche), verbal adjective from lascher, from Vulgar Latin *lascare, classical laxare "to slacken, relax," from laxus "loose; yielding; indulgent" (from PIE root *sleg- "be slack, be languid"). Compare riches.

also lachrimal, lacrymal, early 15c., from Medieval Latin lacrimalis "pertaining to tears," from Latin lacrima, lacryma "a tear" (see lachrymose). The corrupted spelling with -ch- began in Medieval Latin. Hence French larme, Spanish lagrima "a tear," French larmoyer "to shed tears."

also lacrymose, 1660s, "tear-like," from Latin lacrimosus "tearful, sorrowful, weeping," also "causing tears, lamentable," from lacrima, lacryma "a tear," a dialect-altered borrowing of Greek dakryma "a tear," from dakryein "to shed tears, weep, lament with tears," from dakry "a tear" (from PIE *dakru- "tear;" see tear (n.1)). Meaning "given to tears, tearful" is first attested 1727; meaning "of a mournful character" is from 1822. Related: Lachrymosely.

The -d- to -l- alteration in Latin is the so-called "Sabine -L-"; compare Latin olere "smell," from root of odor, and Ulixes, the Latin form of Greek Odysseus. The Medieval Latin practice of writing -ch- for -c- before Latin -r- also altered anchor, pulchritude, sepulchre. The -y- is pedantic, from the former belief that the word was pure Greek. Earlier in the same sense was lachrymental (1620s). Middle English had lacrymable "tearful" (mid-15c.).

1804, from lace (n.) in the decorative sense + -y (2).

in botany, "irregularly cut in narrow lobes, jagged," literally "adorned with fringes," 1760, from Latin lacinia "a flap" (see lacerate).