lark

lark · noun, verb¹

1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*laiwazikǭ
2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*laiwaʀikā
3. Old English · inherited fromlāwerce
4. Middle English · inherited fromlarke
5. English todaylark

From Middle English larke, laverke, from Old English lāwerce, lǣwerce, lāuricæ, from Proto-West Germanic *laiwaʀikā, from Proto-Germanic *laiwazikǭ (compare dialectal West Frisian larts, Dutch leeuwerik, German Lerche), from *laiwaz (borrowed into Finnish leivo, Estonian lõo), of unknown ultimate origin with no definitive cognates outside of Germanic.

lark · noun, verb²

1. Old Norse · derived fromleika“to play (as opposed to work)”
2. English todaylark

Uncertain, either * from a northern English dialectal term lake /laik (“to play”) (around 1300, from Old Norse leika (“to play (as opposed to work)”)), with an intrusive -r- as is common in southern British dialects; or * a shortening of skylark (1809), sailors' slang, "play roughly in the rigging of a ship", because the common European larks were proverbial for high-flying; Dutch has a similar idea in speelvogel (“playbird, a person of markedly playful nature”).

Words from the same roots