Etymology: < let v.²

Etymology: < let v.¹

Etymology: past participle of let v.¹ Compare letten adj.

Etymology: A Common Germanic reduplicating strong verb: Old English lǽtan (Northumbrian léta ), past tense lét , leort (chiefly Anglian and poetic), past participle gelǽten , corresponds to Old Frisian lêta , past tense lît , lêt , past participle lêten , Old Saxon lâtan , past tense liet , lét , past participle gilâtan (Dutch latan , past tense liet , past participle gelaten ), Old High German lâȥan , past tense liaȥ, past participle gilâȥan (Middle High German lâȥen , past tense lieȥ, also shortened lân , past tense lie , past participle gilân ; modern German lassen , past tense liesz , past participle gelassen ), Old Norse láta , past tense lét , past participle látenn (Swedish låta , Danish lade ), Gothic lêtan , past tense lailôt . The root, Germanic *lǣt- < pre-Germanic *lēd- , is related by ablaut to Germanic *lat- (whence late adj.¹) < pre-Germanic *lad- (whence Latin lassus weary); Brugmann compares Greek ληδεῖν (Hesychius) ‘to be weary’. The primary sense of the verb would thus seem to be ‘to let go through weariness, to neglect’; compare the development of the Romanic synonym (French laisser < Latin laxāre, < laxus loose). In all the Germanic languages, however, the word has the same senses as in Old English. The shortening of the root vowel (which is curiously parallel to the change of Middle High German lâȥen into modern German lassen) has not been satisfactorily explained, and no precisely analogous instance has been found, though in the verbs fret and get the normal lengthening of Old English e in open syllables has not taken place before t, and the Old English ǽ, éa are very generally shortened before d and þ, as in dread, bread, breath.