English
leak
Leak comes from Middle English leken ‘to let water in or out’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500leken‘to let water in or out’
- Englishearliest quotation 1596leak
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500leken‘to let water in or out’
- Englishearliest quotation 1596leak
Earliest quotation: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book VI, Canto VIII: “Yet is the bottle leake, and bag so torne,…”
The story
Related also to Old English leċċan (‘to water, wet’), Albanian lag, lak (‘to damp, make wet’).
Every English word from Middle English leken
Today it means
noun A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English leken / leak