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Lithe
Definitions
- 1 Mild; calm. obsolete
"lithe weather"
- 2 Slim but not skinny.
"lithe body"
- 3 Capable of being easily bent; flexible.
"the elephant’s lithe trunk."
- 4 Adaptable.
"Yet the 2016 Éxilé rosé from Lise et Bertrand Jousset in the Loire Valley, made mostly of gamay, was yeasty let^([sic – meaning yet]) light and lithe, while the 2016 Indigeno from Ancarani in Emilia-Romagna, made of trebbiano, was taut and earthy."
- 1 gracefully thin and bending and moving with ease wordnet
- 1 Shelter. Scotland
"So Cospatric got him the Pict folk to build a strong castle there in the lithe of the hills, with the Grampians dark and bleak behind it, and he had the Den drained and he married a Pict lady and got on her bairns and he lived there till he died."
- 1 To become calm. intransitive, obsolete
- 2 To attend; listen, hearken. intransitive, obsolete
- 3 to thicken (gravy, etc.) Yorkshire, archaic, dialectal
"lithe widely used as a verb in nEng Sc and Ir, as a noun only in Cu"
- 4 To make soft or mild; soften; alleviate; mitigate; lessen; smooth; palliate. obsolete, transitive
"England.. hath now suppled, lithed and stretched their throats."
- 5 To listen to, hearken to. transitive
Etymology
From Middle English lithe, from Old English līþe (“gentle, mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *linþ(ī), from Proto-Germanic *linþaz, from Proto-Indo-European *lentos. Akin to Saterland Frisian lied (“thin, skinny, gaunt”), Danish, Dutch, and archaic German lind (“mild”). Some sources also list Latin lenis (“soft”) and/or Latin lentus (“supple”) as possible cognates.
From Middle English lithen, from Old English līþian, līþigian, līþegian (“to soften, calm, mitigate, assuage, appease, be mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *linþijan, from Proto-Germanic *linþijaną (“to soften”), from Proto-Indo-European *lento- (“bendsome, resilient”). Cognate with German lindern (“to alleviate, ease, relieve”).
From Middle English lithen, from Old Norse hlýða (“to listen”), from Proto-Germanic *hliuþijaną (“to listen”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”). Cognate with Danish lytte (“to listen”). Related to Old English hlēoþor (“noise, sound, voice, song, hearing”), Old English hlūd (“loud, noisy, sounding, sonorous”). More at loud.
Uncertain; perhaps an alteration of lewth.
From Old English līþan.
See also for "lithe"
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Unscramble this word: lithe