leak English · revision 7775

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=before 1398|origins=dum leken}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /liːk/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The verb is Middle English lyken, leken, probably [[bor|dum|leken|t=to drip, leak]] or from Old Norse [[m|non|leka]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)^(Hoad 1986) both related to Old English leccan, to moisten, which did not survive into Middle English,^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) from Proto-Germanic *lek-, deficiency, a variant of the base of [[lack]],^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) from PIE *leg-, to dribble, trickle.^(Etymonline) Barnhart notes cognates outside Germanic in Old Irish legaim, I melt, and Welsh llaith, damp.^(Barnhart 1988) The noun, a hole through which liquid passes, is late 15th-century, from the verb or from Old Norse leki.^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)^(Hoad 1986)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ To lose liquid: before 1398, in Trevisa;^(Barnhart 1988) the late 14th century in Etymonline, where Johnson defined it as to let water in or out.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The noun, a hole or crack in a vessel, is from 1487.^(OED 1989) To urinate is from the 1590s, in Shakespeare's ''Henry IV, Part 1'',^(Etymonline) and ''to take a leak'' is slang from 1934, in Henry Miller's ''Tropic of Cancer''.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) The figurative sense, to come to be known in spite of concealment, dates from at least 1832, and the transitive, to disclose, from 1859.^(Etymonline) In electricity a path of high resistance through which current escapes is from 1896,^(OED 1989) and an improper or deliberate disclosure of information, for political purposes, from 1950.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * before 1398 – to lose liquid.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1487 – a hole or crack.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1590s – to urinate.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1832 – to become known.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1950 – a disclosure of secrets.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To let liquid, gas or light escape or enter through a hole or crack.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # To escape or pass through a hole or flaw.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # To disclose secret information without authority, or to become known in this way.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # A crack or hole through which something escapes or enters.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # An unauthorized or deliberate disclosure of [[confidential]] information.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A loss of electric current through faulty insulation.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(slang)'' An act of [[urinate|alt=urinating]]: ''take a leak''.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[leaker]]

+ * [[leakproof]]

+ * [[leakless]]

+ * [[leakage]]

+ * [[leaky]]

+ * [[nonleaking]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[leach]]

+ * [[lack]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}