lease

Pronunciation

• IPA: /liːs/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English lese, borrowed from Anglo-Norman les (“a letting”), Old French lais, leis, a verbal noun from laissier (“to let, leave”),^[2][3][4] from Latin laxāre (“to loosen”), from laxus (“loose”) (see lax),^[2][3] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *sleg- (“to be slack”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A contract conveying property for a fixed term and rent: about 1384 in Barnhart, the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The period of time a lease covers is also an early sense.^[5] Figuratively, especially of life, as a new lease of life, is from the 1580s.^[3][5] The verb, to take a lease, is late 15th-century, and to grant temporary possession at a fixed rate from the 1560s.^[3] Lessor and lessee keep the Anglo-French vowel.^[3] In Australia, a lease is also land leased for mining (1890).^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – a lease.^[2]
• late 15th century – to take a lease.^[3]
• 1560s – to grant a lease.^[3]
• 1580s – a lease of life.^[3]
• 1890 – a mining lease (Australia).^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A contract by which one party lets property, such as land or a building, to another for a set time and rent.
2. The period of such a contract.

Verb

1. To let or rent property by a lease.
2. To take or hold property by a lease.

Word family

• leasable
• leaser
• leaseless
• leaseholder
• prelease
• leasehold
• lessee
• lessor

Related words

• release
• lax
• relax
• leash

Usage notes

Lease also survives in dialect as an Old English word for pasture or common land, lǣs (before 1000),^[5][6] and as a verb, to glean, from Old English lesan.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster