lave

lave¹ remainder

Etymology

The word for the remainder is inherited from Middle English lave, a northern form,^[2][3] inherited from Old English lāf (“what is left, remnant, remains”),^[2][4][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *laibō (“remains, remnant”),^[7][8] a noun derived from *līban-, the Germanic verb behind leave and belīfan (“to remain, be left over”).^[7][8][2][4] Kroonen reconstructs the noun further as Proto-Indo-European *loip-éh₂-.^[7] It is cognate with Old Frisian lāva, Old Saxon lēba, Old High German leiba, Old Norse leif and Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌱𐌰 (laiba, “remainder”).^[4][5][7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

What was left, of people, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle's annal for 867, where those left after a slaughter made peace; and of things, in the Blickling Homilies.^[4][6] Dictionary.com dates the Old English word before 1000, Merriam-Webster before the 12th century.^[10][2]

Semantic evolution

Old English lāf had a wider range: an inheritance or heirloom, a sword or other weapon in poetry, as well as a widow,^[6][9] and the phrase to lave, remaining, surviving, lasted until 1275.^[4] The widow sense lasted in Middle English in the forms loove and love, from about 1325 to 1557.^[4][3] Only the sense "the rest" lived on, and only in the north: Dictionary.com labels the Middle English word Scots, Merriam-Webster calls it now dialectal, and the Shorter Oxford obsolete except in Scots.^[10][2][5] Wright records it in Scotland, Ireland, Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire, with Ramsay's proverb of 1737: "If ae sheep lowp o'er the dyke a' the lave will follow".^[11]

Timeline

• before 1000 – what is left, of people and of things.^[4][10]
• c. 1325 – a widow, in the forms loove and love (last recorded 1557).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Scotland and northern dialect) What is left; the remainder or the rest, of people or things.^{[2][11][5][4]}
2. (obsolete, c. 1325–1557) A widow.^[4][3]

lave² to wash

Etymology

The verb for washing is inherited from Middle English laven,^[2][12][13] inherited from Old English lafian (“to wash by pouring water on, pour”),^{[2][14][6][13]} and also borrowed from Old French laver (“to wash”),^{[12][5][15][16]} which comes from Latin lavō (“to wash, bathe”).^[12][17][5] The OED holds that the Old English and the French verb blended indistinguishably in Middle English.^[4] Most dictionaries also take the Old English verb from the Latin one,^{[2][5][15][13]} and Merriam-Webster takes it through a prehistoric West Germanic word that also gave Middle Dutch laven (“to refresh, soak”) and Old High German labōn (“to refresh, wash”).^[2] Others hedge, with "possibly" or "perhaps".^[18][14][19] The OED explains why: the many Old High German examples concern refreshment by food, drink or warmth, as in German laben, so that a first sense "to wash" would have to be forgotten there, whereas the Latin origin suits the Old English senses, and the continental words may be only accidentally similar.^[4] The Latin verb is cognate with Ancient Greek λούω (loúō, “to wash”),^[18][17][16] and is traced to Proto-Indo-European *leue- (“to wash”),^[14][12] a root Barnhart writes *lou-.^[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

To wash, bathe, or pour water on: in Beowulf, line 2722, in the form gelafian.^[4][18] Barnhart dates the poem about 725, Dictionary.com the word before 900.^[18][10] The Middle English verb is recorded before 1200 in the Trinity Homilies, of Mary Magdalene washing the feet of Jesus with her tears.^[13] Etymonline has about 1200.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The Old English word meant washing by pouring, and medical recipes tell the reader to lave the head or pour the water on a swelling, so "pour" and "wash" were both there from the start.^[6][4] Middle English could also say that blood or tears streamed, and the phrase lave a blode meant to be covered in blood, from about 1275 to 1300.^[13][4] The sense of drawing water out, as with a ladle or bucket, runs from about 1374, in Chaucer's Boece, to 1708,^[4] and Johnson (1755) listed "to throw up; to lade; to draw out" beside "to wash; to bathe".^[20] It survived in dialect: in Scotland, Ireland, northern England and counties from Warwickshire to Somerset, lave still meant to bale or throw water, and pit workings near Tranent were once cleared by "damming and laving".^[11] From 1623 the verb was used of a river or sea washing against or flowing past land.^[4] The Shorter Oxford now calls the word chiefly poetic, and Collins archaic.^[5][19] A noun formed from the verb meant the sea in 1825 slang, and the action of washing from 1865.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 725 – to wash, bathe, pour water on (Old English), in Beowulf.^[18][4] The Middle English laven appears before 1200, in the Trinity Homilies,^[13] and about 1200 in Etymonline.^[14]
• c. 1275 – lave a blode, to be bathed in blood, in Laȝamon's Brut (last recorded about 1300).^[4]
• c. 1374 – to draw water out, to bale, in Chaucer's Boece (last recorded 1708).^[4]
• 1623 – of a river or sea, to wash against, flow past.^[4]
• 1701 – intransitive, to bathe, in Cibber's Love Makes a Man.^[4]
• 1825 – noun, the sea.^[4]
• 1865 – noun, the action of washing.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic or poetic) To wash or bathe: She laved the child's forehead with cool water.^{[2][19][5][4]}
2. Of water, to wash against or flow along: The tide laved the harbour wall.^[2][4]
3. (archaic) To wash oneself; to bathe.^[2][4]
4. To pour out, as with a ladle.^[2][4]
5. (obsolete, c. 1374–1708) To draw water out or up; to bale.^[4][2]

Noun

1. The action of washing; a wash.^[4]

Word family

• unlaved
• unlaving