lees

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lies, the plural of lie, whose singular later became the obsolete lee,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French lie (“sediment, dregs”).^[6][7][8][9] In Anglo-Norman the noun is recorded from the first half of the 12th century.^[10] The French word comes from Medieval Latin lia (“lees, dregs”), plural liae, recorded in the 10th century.^[11][12] The ultimate source is less sure: Skeat called it unknown,^[12] and the OED says only that a Celtic origin has been conjectured,^[11] but most dictionaries take it as probably Celtic, and Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English as Gaulish.^{[6][7][8][2][13][9]} Hoad reconstructs Gaulish *liga or *ligja,^[13] and Wiktionary *ligyā, from Proto-Celtic *legyā (“layer”).^[1] The comparison is with Old Irish lige (“bed, a lying”),^{[6][7][13][3]} and so with Proto-Indo-European *legh- (“to lie down”), the root of lie.^[6][8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The sediment of wine: Chaucer has lyes in the House of Fame, about 1384 in the OED and about 1380 in Barnhart.^[11][7][14] The singular is recorded from 1390, in Gower.^[11][14]

Semantic evolution

The word also covers the sediment of other liquids.^[6][5] From the end of the 16th century it was also used figuratively for the basest part of something, its dregs or refuse: the OED's first record is from Nashe in 1593.^[11][5] The OED's first record of the mainly figurative phrases, such as drain or drink to the lees, to the last drop or the very end, and settle on the lees, is in the King James Bible of 1611, at Isaiah 25:6.^[11] The singular faded: in Macbeth (before 1616) the plural was construed as a singular,^[11] Johnson (1755) noted that the word has seldom a singular,^[15] and the OED's last singular use is from 1813.^[11] Merriam-Webster now records it only in the plural.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – plural, the sediment of wine.^[11][14]
• 1390 – singular lie, the same sediment (obsolete after 1813).^[11][14]
• 1593 – figuratively, the basest part, the dregs.^[11]
• 1611 – in phrases such as to the lees, in the King James Bible.^[11]
• 1706 – attributive use.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sediment that settles out of wine or another liquor during fermentation and aging; dregs: The cider was left on its lees through the winter.^[2][4][5]
2. Figuratively, the basest or most worthless part of something; refuse.^[5][11][2]
3. to the lees: to the last drop, or to the very end.^[5][11]
4. on the lees: settled and inactive; sedentary.^[5][11]

Related words

• lie
• lee

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c d Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.