NODE / 0549attestedPresent-Day English

lay

PRONUNCIATION /leɪ/

to put, place, or set down

DATE: Middle English continuation–today
SENSE: set down verb
FAMILY: Indo-European / Germanic
CANONICAL KEY: node:1:lay:attested:sense:set-down-verb

This dossier follows only the transitive set-down verb.

ANCESTRAL EDGES

ROOT OF THIS ROOT

GO DEEPERhistorical continuationestablished

Middle English · Middle English · set down verb

leggen / leyen

to put, place, or set down

SOUND: Middle English leggen / leyen stabilizes as lay while pronunciation and spelling converge on the modern form.
MEANING: Putting or setting down remains central while many constructions and figurative uses develop.
SCHOLAR: Merriam-Webster · Etymonline · American Heritage editors
CONFIDENCE: established

Lay — Definition, Word History, and First Known UsesupportsWord History and verb senses

Documents the English verb and its Middle English history.

ORIGINAL ↗

Lay — Origin and historysupportsHeadword history: Middle English leien

Documents the Middle English continuation.

ORIGINAL ↗

American Heritage Dictionary: laysupportsWord History: Middle English leien

Independently documents the same stage.

ORIGINAL ↗

OPEN CANONICAL EDGE 510 ↗

DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES

THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP

No reviewed descendants currently reuse this node. Absence describes the graph, not the entire history of the form.

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: 0
REVIEWED EDGES: 0
DEEPEST PATH: 0
MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED: 0

No downstream edge has cleared review for this node. This is a graph-coverage statement, not a claim that the historical form produced nothing.

“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

01laylay · established