The story
- Old English · inherited fromlīflēas“lifeless”
- Middle English · inherited fromlyfles
- English todaylifeless
From Middle English lyfles, lifles, from Old English līflēas (“lifeless”), equivalent to life + -less. Cognate with West Frisian libbensleas (“lifeless”), Dutch levenloos (“lifeless”), German leblos (“lifeless”), Danish livløs (“lifeless”), Swedish livlös (“lifeless”), Icelandic líflaus (“lifeless”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.