NODE / 0500attestedOld Norse

lǫg / lög; lag

law; a laying, layer, order, or disposition

DATE: Old Norse
SENSE: laid down law
FAMILY: Indo-European / North Germanic
CANONICAL KEY: node:66:log lag:attested:sense:laid-down-law

The law-word is a collective plural related to lag, something laid or put in order.

ANCESTRAL EDGES

ROOT OF THIS ROOT

GO DEEPERinheritanceprobable

Proto-Germanic · Proto-Germanic prehistory · laid down order

*lagam

a laying down; what is fixed or set

SOUND: Old Norse lag and lög reflect a reconstructed Germanic *lagam formation in the lay-family.
MEANING: A layer, laying, or ordered placement supplies the legal sense “what is laid down.”
SCHOLAR: American Heritage · UT LRC · Cleasby–Vigfusson
CONFIDENCE: probable — Reference traditions vary in notation and inflectional detail.

Cleasby–Vigfusson Old Norse Dictionary: lagsupportslag entries: layer; laying in order; law-related uses

Documents the attested Old Norse semantic family behind what is laid down.

ORIGINAL ↗

Indo-European Lexicon: legh-supportslegh- reflex list: Old Norse lag and lög; Germanic *lagam analysis

Supplies the comparative Germanic route.

ORIGINAL ↗

OPEN CANONICAL EDGE 467 ↗

DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES

THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP

DESCENDANTborrowingestablished

Old English · Old English · scandinavian law

lagu

ordinance, prescribed rule, regulation, or legal district

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 ↗

TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE

EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE

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: 3
REVIEWED EDGES: 3
DEEPEST PATH: 3
MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED: 1

law3 connected nodes

HISTORICAL STEP 011 EDGE

STEP 01borrowingestablished

Old Norselǫg / lög; lag→Old English · Old Englishlaguordinance, prescribed rule, regulation, or legal district

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.

Merriam-Webster · Etymonline editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 466 ↗

Law — Word History · Word History: Old English lagu, of Scandinavian origin; Old Norse lǫg ↗Law — Origin and history · Headword history: Old English lagu from Old Norse *lagu ↗

HISTORICAL STEP 021 EDGE

STEP 02inheritanceestablished

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 031 EDGE

STEP 03historical 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.

RECORDED EVIDENCE

ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE

NO RECORDED WITNESS ATTACHED.

The reviewed graph does not yet attach a source-reported or directly inspected witness to this canonical form.

EDITORIAL REUSE

WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE

04lawlǫg / lög; lag · established