læccan

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *lakkjan (to seize), from Proto-Germanic *lakjaną (to grasp, seize), evidently only attested in Old English, from Proto-Indo-European *lh₂g-ie-, which could be an isogloss shared with Ancient Greek λάζομαι (lázomai, I seize, grasp).[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈlæt.t͡ʃɑn/

Verb

læċċan

  1. to grab (sometimes violently: snatch, catch, apprehend)
    • The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
      Ōsrēd, þe wæs Norþanhymbra cining, æfter wræcsīþe hām cumenum ġelǣht wæs ⁊ ofslagen on XVIII Kƚ Octoƀ ⁊ his līc liġþ æt Tīnamūþe. ⁊ Æþelrēd cining feng tō nīwan wīfe, sēo wæs Ælflēd ġehāten, on III Kƚ Octobr̃.
      Osred, who was king of Northumbria, was apprehended and slain on the 17th of October after coming home from his foreign travels, and his body lies at Tynemouth. And King Aethelred took a new wife, whose name was Aelfled, on the third of October.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Middle English: lacchen

References

  1. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013) “lakjan”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 325