leg

Pronunciation

• IPA: /leɡ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English leg, legge,^[2] borrowed from Old Norse leggr (“leg, bone of the arm or leg”),^[3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz,^[3][5] the source also of Danish læg and Swedish lägg “the calf of the leg”,^[3][4] a word with no certain further connections.^[3][5] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare Old English līra “fleshy part of the body” and Latin lacertus “muscle, upper arm”,^[4][2] and Buck suggests a root meaning “to bend”.^[3] It replaced Old English shank.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the limbs of support and movement: the late 13th century in Etymonline,^[3] about 1275 in the OED.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It is distinguished from an arm or fin in being used for support.^[3] Of trouser legs it is from the 1570s,^[3] of the sides of a triangle from the 1650s, translating Greek skelos,^[3] and of furniture supports from the 1670s.^[3] On one's last legs is from the 1590s.^[3] A ship's run on a single tack (1867) gave the sense “a stage of a journey or race” (1920).^[3][6] To take leg bail, to run away, was old slang (1774),^[3] shake a leg meant “dance” from 1869 and “hurry up” from 1880,^[3] and legs, staying power, is from 1970s show business.^[3] The verb leg it, “to walk fast, run”, is from about 1500^[3] or 1601 in the OED.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – the limb.^[7]
• c. 1500 – verb, leg it.^[3]
• 1570s – a trouser leg.^[3]
• 1590s – on one's last legs.^[3]
• 1670s – a furniture leg.^[3]
• 1867 – a ship's run on one tack.^[3]
• 1920 – a stage of a journey.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A limb of an animal used for support and walking.
2. One of the lower limbs of a human being, especially the part between the knee and the foot.
3. A supporting part like a leg, as of a table.
4. The part of a garment that covers the leg.
5. A stage of a journey or race.
6. Either side of a triangle other than the base or hypotenuse.

Verb

1. (informal) To go on foot; to walk or run: leg it.

Word family

• legless
• leglike
• leg out

Related words

• shank
• legging
• leggy
• limb
• foot

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press