GRAPH-WIDE SEARCH
MEASURE THE GRAPH ↗NOT JUST A DICTIONARY LOOKUP
6 EVIDENCE COLLECTIONSSEARCH
THE GRAPH.
Find a modern word—or search sideways through reconstructed roots, historical forms, meanings, languages, scholars, sources, claims, disputes, and witnesses.
WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL4 source sections across 1 headword matching “Lead”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
leadEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
From Middle English led, leed, from Old English lēad (“lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laud (“lead”), possibly borrowed from Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow”). Cognate with Scots leid, lede (“lead”), North Frisian lud, luad (“lead”), West Frisian lead (“lead”), Dutch lood (“lead”), Low German Lod (“solder, plummet”), German Lot (“solder, plummet, sounding line”), Swedish lod (“solder, plummet”), Icelandic lóð (“a plumb, weight”), Irish luaidhe (“lead”) Latin plumbum (“lead”), Finnish luoti (“bullet”). Doublet of loth. More at flow. * (graphite in a pencil): Graphite was once believed to be a form of lead; see black lead and plumbago.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗leadEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
From Middle English led, leed, from Old English lēad (“lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laud (“lead”), possibly borrowed from Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow”). Cognate with Scots leid, lede (“lead”), North Frisian lud, luad (“lead”), West Frisian lead (“lead”), Dutch lood (“lead”), Low German Lod (“solder, plummet”), German Lot (“solder, plummet, sounding line”), Swedish lod (“solder, plummet”), Icelandic lóð (“a plumb, weight”), Irish luaidhe (“lead”) Latin plumbum (“lead”), Finnish luoti (“bullet”). Doublet of loth. More at flow. * (graphite in a pencil): Graphite was once believed to be a form of lead; see black lead and plumbago.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗leadEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
From Middle English leden, from Old English lǣdan (“to lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijan, from Proto-Germanic *laidijaną (“to cause one to go, lead”), causative of Proto-Germanic *līþaną (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to leave, die”). Cognate with West Frisian liede (“to lead”), Dutch leiden (“to lead”), German leiten (“to lead”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål lede (“to lead”), Norwegian Nynorsk leia (“to lead”), Swedish leda (“to lead”), Faroese and Icelandic leiða (“to lead”). Related to Old English līþan (“to go, travel”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗leadEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
Perhaps from a confusion or conflation with read, which has a single spelling for both past and present tenses, but has differing pronunciations in the same way as lead, i.e. the present's vowel is /i/, and the past's is /ɛ/. See also red and redd, the obsolete spellings of read.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Chambers (1908)
1908- LeadEnglish · e-38538-7150
Lead, lēd, v.t. to show the way by going first: to guide by the hand: to direct: to precede: to transport or carry: to allure.—v.i. to go before and show the way: to have a tendency: to exercise dominion:—pr.p. lead′ing;
Read the full source record → - LeadEnglish · e-38538-7151
Lead, led, n. a well-known metal of a bluish-white colour: the plummet for sounding at sea: a thin plate of lead separating lines of type: (pl.) sheets of lead for covering roofs, a flat roof so covered.—v.t. to cover or
Read the full source record →
0112
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
onomastic compound elementhistorical form
-rīx
An attested Gaulish second member meaning “king” or “prince,” visible in compound personal names such as Dumnorix and Vercingetorix and inherited from Proto-Celtic *rīx-s.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verb and adjectivecontrarian claim
direct
To guide, aim, command, or proceed without deviation or intermediary; continuing Latin dīrēctus and dīrigere through distinct medieval channels.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun · verbcontrarian claim
king
An inherited English title continuing Old English cyning and reconstructed Germanic *kuninga-, a formation built on the Germanic kin or lineage base.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
realm
A kingdom, domain, or sphere; inherited through Middle English realme and Old French material ultimately from Latin regimen.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjectivehistorical form
regal
Of, relating to, or suitable for a monarch; borrowed through French or directly from Latin rēgālis.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjectivehistorical form
regular
Conforming to a rule, pattern, order, or interval; borrowed through French from Late Latin rēgulāris.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verbhistorical form
regulate
To govern, direct, order, or adjust according to a rule; entering English from Late Latin formations on rēgula.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjectivehistorical form
rich
Having wealth, abundance, value, or intensity; continuing a medieval convergence of English and French forms from a Germanic power word.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjectivehistorical form
right
Correct, just, suitable, straight, or on one side; inherited through Old English riht from a Germanic straight-and-correct formation.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjectivehistorical form
royal
Of a monarch, crown, or kingdom; borrowed through Anglo-French from Latin rēgālis and rēx.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
rule
A guide, standard, exercise of authority, or measuring straightedge; borrowed through French from Latin rēgula.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
rí
The Old Irish word for a king, with genitive ríg, inherited from Proto-Celtic *rīx-s in the Indo-European king branch.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗023
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
*
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*h₃reg-
move in a straight line; direct, lead, rule
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European centum form
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 13
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*h₃reg̑-
move in a straight line; direct, lead, rule
- DATE
- oldest published Proto-Indo-European form
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 13
Latin / Indo-European
regere
lead straight, direct, rule
- DATE
- Latin
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 2
0324
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 12
openprobableposition text
Why does Köbler print hatia with an asterisk while corpus forms are visible?
Köbler's sigla mark inferred or unattested representations inside his lexicographic system, while the later corpus surfaces inflected forms hatijen, hatie, hata, and hatien and one misleading hatia homograph. The exact source-base difference remains to be reconciled.
openproposedposition text
What did Proto-Germanic *kuninga- originally designate?
The kin-base derivation is secure in the reviewed sources, but its exact social interpretation is not. EWA gives a member of a noble lineage; Meli proposes one who brings distinction to his lineage. “Leader of the kin” is not a neutral translation of either analysis.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Was -logy a freestanding ancestral word?
No evidence reviewed here supports that representation. Merriam-Webster calls -logy a noun combining form and explains that a hyphenated entry is a word element forming part of a compound; the historical forms are likewise evidenced within larger formations. The unrelated adjective logy “sluggish” has a different history.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Was Gaulish -rīx an attested freestanding word?
No freestanding token is established by the reviewed evidence. Cambridge calls it an onomastic element and Bolelli and Campanile call it the second member of compound personal names. The form is attested through those hosts, while Proto-Celtic *rīx-s is reconstructed.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Did every Germanic cognate preserve the same semantic history?
No. German Feind remains an ordinary enemy noun, English fiend foregrounds demon and vicious-person senses, and Old Norse is glossed enemy or devil. Shared ancestry does not erase branch-specific semantics.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Does modern Freund literally mean someone currently loving?
No. The participial source is diachronic morphology; contemporary dictionaries give lexical friend, partner, supporter, and ally senses.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Could medieval haʒ describe friendly competition?
Yes in one cited Erec context. DWB quotes riders who friuntlîchen striten and calls their contest bescheiden haʒ, rivalry in pursuing a goal. This does not make every medieval use friendly.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Does Portuguese chá disprove the sea-versus-land rule?
It disproves the rule as a universal law, not the global tendency. Portuguese merchants used a maritime route yet Portuguese retained a cha-type form.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Was a clew originally evidence?
No. The oldest reviewed sense is a ball of thread. The guiding and evidence senses develop from stories in which a thread leads someone through a difficult place.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Does the root reveal that every enemy is truly a hater?
No. Etymology records historical formation, not an immutable present-day essence. Modern fiende covers people, states, armies, forces, and figurative threats whether or not literal hatred is evidenced.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Does properly a hater define every fjándi referent?
No. It is a historical word-formation gloss, not a psychological claim about every enemy, demon, god, animal, object, or insult target.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Was kinship the recorded Scandinavian center?
Yes, but not the exclusive sense. Cleasby–Vigfússon and Zoëga center kinsman, while ONP preserves narrower friend and companion groups beside the much broader relative record.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 12
RANK 18GRADE Aranked reveal
The famous Gaulish ending is -rīx, not decorative -ix.
Cambridge identifies Gaulish -rix /-rīxs/ “king” inside Dumnorix and Vercingetorix and derives it from Proto-Celtic *rīx-s. The r belongs to the historical element; the exact force of that element still varies across individual names.
RANK 19GRADE Aranked reveal
The x of rēx is a whole nominative sound change in one letter.
Latin starts from the bound stem rēg-, adds nominative -s, devoices g to k, and writes the resulting /ks/ as x. Genitive rēgis makes the stem visible—but it is a sibling case form, not an ancestor.
RANK 20GRADE Aranked reveal
King is a kin-word, not a royal word.
English king continues Old English cyning and Germanic *kuninga-, built on the kin or lineage base *kunja-. Latin rēx, royal, and regal belong to a different root—and even “leader of the kin” overstates the disputed original Germanic sense.
RANK 104GRADE Aranked reveal
Right was straight before morality claimed it.
Old English riht and Germanic *rehtaz belong to a reconstructed straight-and-direct family. Justice and correctness are historical extensions inside the same inherited word.
RANK 105GRADE Aranked reveal
A rule was a straightedge.
Latin rēgula named a straightedge or ruler as well as a principle. English authority and procedure descend through that concrete measuring branch.
RANK 106GRADE Aranked reveal
Royal and right are deep cousins.
Royal follows Latin rēgālis and rēx through the king branch; right follows Germanic *rehtaz through the straight-and-correct branch. They meet at reconstructed *h₃reg-.
RANK 107GRADE Aranked reveal
Royal reshaped realm.
Realm follows Latin regimen, government, through Old French reiame; American Heritage reports that its medieval form was altered under the influence of Old French reial, royal.
RANK 108GRADE Aranked reveal
Rich was powerful—and its ancestor crossed from Celtic into Germanic.
Old English rīce meant strong or powerful. Germanic *rīkja- was borrowed from Celtic *rīg-yo-, in the same king branch that produced royal and rājā.
RANK 109GRADE Aranked reveal
Direct is a straight-line word before it is an immediacy word.
Latin dīrigere combines dī-/dis- with regere, to guide or lead straight; its participle dīrēctus supplies the straightened form behind English.
RANK 110GRADE Aranked reveal
Irish rí and Latin rēx are cousins, not copies.
Old Irish rí and genitive ríg descend from Proto-Celtic *rīx-s and *rīg-os, while Latin rēx follows the parallel Italic branch.
RANK 111GRADE Aranked reveal
Rājā is the visible case form; rājan- is the stem.
The familiar Sanskrit nominative rājā belongs to the consonant stem rājan-, reconstructed through *rēg-en- in the same deep family as royal, rí, right, and rule.
RANK 155GRADE Aranked reveal
Regular is measured order.
Late Latin rēgulāris grows from rēgula, the straight bar or rule. Ordinary, scheduled, and normal are later abstractions from conformity to a rule.
040
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “lead.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
050
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “lead.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
06
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.