leak

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*leg-“to leak”
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*lekaną“to leak, drain”
3. Old Norse · derived fromleka“to leak, drip”
4. Middle Dutch · derived fromleken“to leak, drip”
5. Old English · inherited from*lecan“to leak”
6. Middle English · inherited fromleken“to let water in or out”
7. English todayleak

From Middle English leken (“to let water in or out”), from Old English *lecan (“to leak”), Middle Dutch leken (“to leak, drip”) or Old Norse leka (“to leak, drip”); all from Proto-Germanic *lekaną (“to leak, drain”), from Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to leak”). Cognate with Dutch lekken (“to leak”), German lechen, lecken (“to leak”), Danish lække (“to leak”), Swedish läcka (“to leak”), Norwegian Bokmål lekke (“to leak”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk leka (“to leak”). Related also to Old English leċċan (“to water, wet”), Albanian lag, lak (“to damp, make wet”). See also leach, lake. (divulgation, disclosure of information): Compare typologically Bulgarian изтичане (iztičane), Polish przeciek, Russian уте́чка (utéčka) (akin to течь impf or f (tečʹ)).

Words from the same roots