leal

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lel, also leel and leal,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman leal and Old French leel,^[5][6][7][3] from Latin lēgālis (“of the law, legal”),^[5][3][8][9] the source of legal.^[8][4] The Old French word usually took the semi-learned form leial, also leal, which became loial, modern loyal, the source of loyal;^[5][7][10] leal is therefore a doublet of both loyal and legal.^[10][9][11] The same Latin adjective gave Spanish leal, Italian leale and Catalan lleal.^[5] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1140–60, meaning loyal, faithful, true, law-abiding and lawful.^[12] Etymonline describes leal as the form of loyal that survived from Middle English in northern English and Scots.^[13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Loyal, faithful, honest, of persons: before 1300, in the Cursor Mundi.^[5] The Middle English Dictionary's first quotations are from Arthour and Merlin and Bevis of Hampton in the Auchinleck manuscript (c. 1330), where a knight fights wiþ hert lel, with a loyal heart.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word ranged from "loyal, faithful" to "loyal to God, virtuous", "just, honest" and "truthful, reliable".^[2] From about 1330 it also meant true, genuine, exact or accurate, and of a blow or shot, well aimed;^[5][6] from 1352 it also meant lawful or fair, a sense the OED last records in 1727.^[5] The adverb, loyally, honestly, truly, is recorded from before 1400.^[5][3] Leal lived on in Scots and northern English: the English Dialect Dictionary records it in Scotland, Ireland, Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland and Lancashire for "loyal, faithful, true, upright, honest", with the spellings leel, lele and leil, and quotes the proverb "A leill heart lied never" (1641) and Stevenson's Catriona (1893).^[15] Weekley attributes the phrase land of the leal to Lady Nairne (1798),^[14] and Etymonline notes that it means heaven, not Scotland;^[13] Chambers defines Land o' the Leal as the home of the blessed after death.^[11] Outside Scotland the word is now archaic or literary.^[11][6][8]

Timeline

• before 1300 – of persons, loyal, faithful, honest.^[5]
• c. 1330 – true, genuine, exact; of a blow, well aimed.^[5]
• c. 1350 – of things or qualities, loyal, true.^[5]
• 1352 – lawful, just, fair (obsolete by 1727).^[5]
• before 1400 – adverb, loyally, honestly, truly.^[5]
• 1798 – the land of the leal, heaven, in Lady Nairne.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (chiefly Scottish) Loyal, faithful and true: a leal friend to the end.^{[8][3][11][15]}
2. (Scottish) True, accurate, free from error.^[3][5]
3. (obsolete, 1352–1727) Lawful; just or fair.^[5][2]

Adverb

1. (Scottish) Loyally; honestly; truly.^[3][5]

Word family

• leally

Related words

• loyal
• legal
• loyalty
• lealty

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b 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)