Lai
//laɪ// name, noun
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A mostly North European medieval form of lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance, with stanzas that do not repeat. historical
- 2 Initialism of leaf area index. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
Proper Noun
- 1 A Tibeto-Burman language of India and Burma.
- 2 A surname from Chinese.
- 3 A surname from Chinese.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English lai, lay, from Old French lai (“song, lyric, poem”), from Old Frankish *laik, *laih (“play, melody, song”), from Proto-Germanic *laikaz, *laikiz (“jump, play, dance, hymn”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyg- (“to jump, spring, play”). Akin to Old High German leih (“a play, skit, melody, song”), Middle High German leich (“piece of music, epic song played on a harp”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌺𐍃 (laiks, “a dance”), Old English lācan (“to move quickly, fence, sing”). More at lake.
Etymology 2
Borrowed from Lai Lai.
Etymology 3
From Chinese 賴／赖 (lài) (Mandarin: lài, Cantonese: laai⁶, Hakka: lai).
Etymology 4
From Cantonese 黎 (lai4).
Related phrases
More for "lai"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.