*SET-U

CANONICAL LANGUAGE GRAPH

TRACE A WORD ↗
NODE / 0499attestedOld English

lagu

ordinance, prescribed rule, regulation, or legal district

DATE
Old English
SENSE
scandinavian law
FAMILY
Indo-European / West Germanic
CANONICAL KEY
node:3:lagu:attested:sense:scandinavian-law

Merriam-Webster and Etymonline identify the Old English word as Scandinavian in origin.

01

ANCESTRAL EDGES

ROOT OF THIS ROOT

1
GO DEEPERborrowingestablished
Old Norse · Old Norse · laid down law

lǫg / lög; lag

law; a laying, layer, order, or disposition

SOUND
Old English adapts a Scandinavian law-word represented by Old Norse lǫg / lög and lag.
MEANING
What is laid down or put in order becomes a prescribed rule and legal institution.
CHRONOLOGY
The exact contact event and donor inflection are not reduced to one date.
SCHOLAR
Merriam-Webster · Etymonline editors
CONFIDENCE
established
Law — Word HistorysupportsWord History: Old English lagu, of Scandinavian origin; Old Norse lǫg

Directly identifies the borrowing direction and Old Norse comparison.

ORIGINAL ↗
Law — Origin and historysupportsHeadword history: Old English lagu from Old Norse *lagu

Independently documents the Scandinavian transmission.

ORIGINAL ↗
OPEN CANONICAL EDGE 466 ↗
02

DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES

THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP

1
DESCENDANTinheritanceestablished
Middle English · Middle English · binding rule

lawe / laue

law, ordinance, or body of rules

SOUND
Old English lagu continues into Middle English with loss of final unstressed -u and spelling variation including laue and lawe.
MEANING
Ordinance, rule, and legal order remain central.
SCHOLAR
Merriam-Webster · Etymonline · UT LRC editors
CONFIDENCE
established
Law — Word HistorysupportsWord History: Old English lagu

Documents the Old English parent.

ORIGINAL ↗
Indo-European Lexicon: legh-supportslegh- reflex list: Old English lagu and Middle English law

Places both English stages in the cited comparative family.

ORIGINAL ↗
OPEN CANONICAL EDGE 465 ↗
03

TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE

EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE

2

This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.

UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES
2
REVIEWED EDGES
2
DEEPEST PATH
2
MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED
1
law2 connected nodes
HISTORICAL STEP 011 EDGE
STEP 01inheritanceestablished
Old Englishlagu→Middle English · Middle Englishlawe / lauelaw, ordinance, or body of rules
SOUND
Old English lagu continues into Middle English with loss of final unstressed -u and spelling variation including laue and lawe.
MEANING
Ordinance, rule, and legal order remain central.
Merriam-Webster · Etymonline · UT LRC editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 465 ↗
Law — Word History · Word History: Old English lagu ↗Indo-European Lexicon: legh- · legh- reflex list: Old English lagu and Middle English law ↗
HISTORICAL STEP 021 EDGE
STEP 02historical continuationestablished
Middle Englishlawe / laue→Present-Day English · Middle English continuation–todaylawbinding rule, body of rules, or regular principle
SOUND
Middle English lawe / laue stabilizes as law while later English vowel history produces the modern pronunciation.
MEANING
The inherited legal-rule sense expands to bodies of law, professions, and regular principles in science.
Merriam-Webster · Etymonline editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 464 ↗
Law — Word History · Word History: Middle English from Old English lagu; First Known Use ↗Law — Origin and history · Headword history and later senses ↗

“Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.

04

RECORDED EVIDENCE

ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE

1
SOURCE-REPORTEDlexicographic first useestablished

Merriam-Webster source-reported Old English record

Old English lagu, of Scandinavian origin; noun use before the twelfth century.

law dossier · recorded as lagu
WITNESS RECORD ↗Law — Word History ↗
05

EDITORIAL REUSE

WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE

1
03lawlagu · established