English
left
Left comes from Old English left, lyft ‘weak, clumsy, foolish’, from Proto-Germanic *luft-.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*luft-reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150left‘weak, clumsy, foolish’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
- Englishearliest quotation 1904same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*luft-reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150left‘weak, clumsy, foolish’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
- Englishearliest quotation 1904same form
Earliest quotation: 1904, 1904 March 22, Waiting for the First Collision in the Yalu Region: “The following dispatch has been received from Viceroy Alexieff,…”
The story
From Middle English left, luft, leoft, lift, lyft, from Old English left, lyft (‘weak, clumsy, foolish’), attested in Old English lyftādl (‘palsy, paralysis’), from Proto-Germanic *luft-, from *lubjaną (‘to castrate, lop off’) (compare dialectal English lib, West Frisian lobje, Dutch lubben), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lewp-, *(s)lup- (‘hanging limply’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- ‘to desire, covet, want’
love, believe, leave, library, belief, lodge, lobby, leaf, lib, libel, loft, libido, lob, liber, libretto, luft, lief, 17 more
Today it means
adj Designating the side of the body toward the west when one is facing north; the side of the body on which the heart is located in most humans; the opposite of right. This arrow points to the reader's left: ←
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *luft- / left