leach

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Old English leccan (“to water, moisten, irrigate”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} which is from Proto-Germanic *lakjaną (“to cause to leak, moisten”),^[1][8] the causative of *lekaną (“to leak”),^[8] the source of leak.^[7][8] Kroonen gives as cognates Middle Dutch lecken, Dutch lekken, Old High German lecken and German lecken, all with the same meaning, and traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *log-éie-.^[8] The Old English verb glosses Latin rigō (“to water”).^[9][2] The OED notes that there is no trace of the verb between Old English and the technical use of the 18th century, apart from a doubtful instance in Shakespeare, and that the expected modern form is letch, the spelling leach being phonologically obscure.^[2] Barnhart therefore doubts the descent from leccan and takes the verb as developed from the noun, which goes back to leche (“a solution obtained by leaching”) and to lech (“a muddy ditch or stream”), from *læce (“muddy stream”), itself from leccan.^[10][11] The American Heritage Dictionary and Dictionary.com also derive the word from that noun, akin to leccan.^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To water, wet: the Old English verb is recorded before 830, in the Vespasian Psalter,^[10] and the OED's first quotation is from King Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Old English sense "to water, wet" was rare and is last recorded about 1600;^[2][3] an intransitive sense "to soften, melt" appears only in 1620.^[2][3] Etymonline finds the sense of washing or draining by percolation by the 1660s in cookery,^[7] and the noun leach as a preparation made by straining from the 1630s.^[7] In the 18th century the word was used in technical senses, as in leach-trough, a trough in salt-works in which grains of salt from brine were left to drain.^[7] The noun named a perforated vessel or trough in which water was poured over wood ashes to make lye from 1673,^[2][10] and a tanning pit from 1779.^[2] The modern verb, to make a liquid percolate through something, is recorded from 1796,^[2][10][14] and its use for the action of rain on soil from 1839.^[10][2] In Cheshire and Staffordshire salt-making, leach or leach-brine was the fully saturated brine that drains from the salt.^[15][2]

Timeline

• before 830 – Old English leccan, to water, in the Vespasian Psalter.^[10]
• 1397 – leche in lechecomb, a tub for soaking.^[10][11]
• before 1475 – leche, a solution obtained by leaching.^[10]
• 1620 – intransitive, to soften, melt (obsolete).^[2][3]
• 1630s – noun, a preparation made by straining.^[7]
• 1673 – noun, a perforated vessel for making lye from wood ashes.^[2][10]
• 1779 – noun, a pit used in tanning.^[2]
• 1796 – to cause a liquid to percolate through some material.^[2][10][14]
• 1828 – noun, the act or process of leaching, in Webster's dictionary.^[10][2]
• 1839 – to subject soil, bark or ores to percolating water.^[2][10]
• 1860 – to take away by percolation, also figuratively.^[2]
• 1883 – intransitive, to percolate through and pass out.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To remove the soluble parts of (soil, ore, ash or the like) by passing water or another liquid through it: The miners leach the crushed ore with an acid solution.^[16][14][2]
2. To dissolve and carry away (a substance) by a percolating liquid, often with out or from: Rainwater leached the lime from the soil.^[16][14]
3. To lose soluble matter, or to be washed out, by such action: Nutrients leach out of sandy ground.^[16][2]
4. To drain something away gradually; also figuratively.^[2][14]
5. (obsolete, Old English–1600) To water, wet.^[2][3]

Noun

1. The act or process of leaching.^[16][2]
2. A substance that is leached; leachate.^[16][14]
3. A perforated vessel in which water is passed through wood ashes to extract lye.^[14][2]
4. In salt-making, the saturated brine that drains from the salt or is left in the pan.^[14][2][15]

Word family

• leachability
• leachable
• leacher
• unleached
• leachate

Related words

• leak

Usage notes

A separate, now archaic leach was a slice of meat and a dish of sliced meat, eggs, fruit and spices set in jelly, recorded from about 1390;^[2][3] it is lesche (“a slice”),^[2][3][17] and the verb leach, to slice meat, was formed from it.^[2][3] In English dialects leach also meant a strand of a rope in Wiltshire, hard work among northern miners, and to cheat in Suffolk.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)