lagu

lagu¹ sea, water

Pronunciation

• /ˈlɑ.ɡu/, [ˈlɑ.ɣu]^[1]

Forms

lagu m (strong u-stem; genitive singular laga, nominative plural laga)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the sea is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *lagu (“water, sea”), from Proto-Germanic *laguz.^[1][2] It is a u-stem noun shared with North Germanic and Old Saxon: Old Norse lǫgr (“sea, water, liquid”) and Old Saxon lagu.^[2][3] Outside Germanic it matches Latin lacus (“lake, pond”) and Old Irish loch (“lake”), and, with another suffix, Ancient Greek λάκκος (lákkos, “pond, cistern, pit”).^[2][3] Kroonen sets up a European word Proto-Indo-European *lókus;^[2][1][3][4] Orel and Holthausen add the Slavic word for a pool, Proto-Slavic *loky.^[2][1][3][4] Köbler gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *laku- (“lake, sea”) (Pokorny 653).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the Junius manuscript, written in the second half of the tenth century: in Genesis A the dry land appears when gesundrod wæs lago wið lande “the sea was parted from the land”.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

Klaeber marks the word as poetic, and most of Bosworth and Toller's quotations come from the poems, such as lagu, wæter under wolcnum “the lake, water under the clouds” in Beowulf.^[9][8] It names the sea, a lake and water in general, and also the rune ᛚ, whose stanza in the Rune Poem begins Lagu byþ leodum langsum geþuht “water seems tedious to men”.^[8][10] In charters land and lagu renders Latin “terra et aqua”.^[8]

It is continued by Middle English lai “lake, pond, pool”, together with Old French lai (“lake”).^[11]

Timeline

• s. x² – lago “sea” parted from the land in Genesis A in the Junius manuscript.^[6][7]
• s. x² – lagu lacende “the tossing water” in Andreas in the Vercelli Book.^[8][12]
• s. x/xi – lagu “lake, water” in Beowulf line 1630.^[9][13]
• c. 1300 – Middle English lai “lake, pond”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (poetic) the sea, ocean; a lake.^[8][9][5]
2. water, a flood.^[8][14]
3. the name of the rune ᛚ (l).^[8][1]

Word family

• lagucræftiġ
• lagustrǣt
• lagustrēam
• lagufæsten
• laguflōd

Descendants

• Middle English laȝe^[1]
• Middle English lai (→ English lay)^[1]

lagu² law

Pronunciation

• /ˈlɑ.ɡu/, [ˈlɑ.ɣu]^[1]

Forms

lagu f (strong ō-stem; genitive singular lage, nominative plural laga)^[1] In compounds lah-, as in lahcēap.^[10][14]

Etymology

The word for law is borrowed from Old Norse lǫg (“laws”), the plural of lag (“something laid, position”), from Proto-Germanic *lagą (“something laid”).^[1][15][16] The Norse word was a neuter plural, “the things laid down”;^[1][10][14] English took it over as a feminine singular, and the old plural meaning shows only now and then.^[1][10][14] Köbler glosses the Germanic noun as “position, order, law” and traces it to the root Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”) (Pokorny 658), the root of licgan and lecgan.^[5][1]

Durkin counts it among the important Norse loans and notes that it first appears in references to the legal customs of the Danes.^[17] Pons-Sanz likewise finds that its earliest records, none older than the tenth century, concern only the Scandinavian settlers and their legal practice, which is the main reason it is held to be a loan.^[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

Liebermann notes that in the laws the word is missing before the treaty of Edward and Guthrum; the earlier codes have it only in a later manuscript.^[19] The first dated manuscript record found is in Ælfric's Lives of Saints (Cotton Julius E. vii, early eleventh century): Forði synd laga gesætte þæt menn rihtlice libban “therefore laws are laid down so that men may live rightly”.^[20][7]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term for law in the Danish districts and spread to every kind of law: the body of rules of a people, a single law, a branch of law, going to law, and the law of God and of Moses.^[21] It also named the district under one law, as in Dena lagu “the Danelaw”.^[14][10] Pons-Sanz traces much of the spread to Archbishop Wulfstan: his collocation Dena lagu draws on the wording of King Edgar's code, and in his works the native ǣ is kept for marriage while lagu takes over the field of law.^[22][23] The word is missing from Ælfric's Catholic Homilies of the early 990s and occasional in his Grammar and Lives of Saints;^[24][25] Godden tied his later, more frequent use of it to his contact with Wulfstan.^[24][25]

The word lived on as Middle English laue, now English law.^[11][26]

Timeline

• s. xi in. – laga gesætte “laws laid down” in Ælfric's Lives of Saints.^[20][7]
• s. xi med. – Godes lage lufode “loved God's law” in the Chronicle D annal for 959.^[27][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. law, the body of rules of a people or community.^[21][5]
2. a single law, ordinance, rule.^[21][10]
3. (law) a right, legal privilege.^[10]
4. a district governed by one law, as in Dena lagu “the Danelaw”.^[10][14]
5. the law of God; the law of Moses.^[21]

Word family

• ūtlagu
• unlagu
• griþlagu
• landlagu
• lahcēap

Descendants

• Middle English laȝe (→ English law; Scots law)^[1]