Etymology: Old English léan strong neuter = Old Frisian lân, Old Saxon, Old High German, Middle High German lôn (Dutch loon, modern German lohn masculine), Old Norse laun, neuter plural (Swedish lön, Danish løn), Gothic laun neuter < Old Germanic *laun-. The root lau- is referred to the same source as Old Church Slavonic lovŭ capture, booty, Latin lūcrum gain, Greek ἀπολαύειν to enjoy.

Etymology: < lean v.¹

Etymology: Old English hlǽne < Old Germanic type *hlainjo- , perhaps representing a pre-Germanic *qloinio- , related by ablaut to Lithuanian klýnas scrap, fragment, Latvian kleins feeble. (If so, the word is not related to lean v.¹, the pre-Germanic initial of which is k, not q.)

Etymology: Middle English lēnen < Old English hleonian, hlinian, corresponding to Old Frisian lena (compare hlenbed sickbed), Old Saxon hlinôn (Middle Dutch lēnen , Dutch leunen ), Old High German (h)linên (Middle High German linen , lenen , modern German lehnen , whence Danish læne reflexive), < Germanic root *hlῑ- (ablaut- variant of *hlai- : see ladder n.) < Old Aryan *klῑ- represented in Greek κλῖμαξ ladder, Latin clīvus declivity, etc., Sanskrit çri to lean; the formation of the Germanic verb, with n suffix originally belonging to the present-stem, is paralleled in Greek κλίνειν to make to slope, Latin inclīnāre to incline v.Old English had a causative hlǽnan to make to lean (occurring only once as simple verb and once in each of the compounds up-áhlǽnan and bihlǽnan), corresponding to Middle Dutch leinen, Old High German hleinen (Middle High German leinen) < West Germanic *hlainjan. If this verb survived into Middle English, it would assume the form lēnen, thus coalescing with hleonian. Whether the modern verb actually descends from both the Old English verbs is doubtful, but in view of the rare occurrence of hlǽnan in Old English it seems more probable that only hleonian has come down; the development of transitive senses presents no difficulty.