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*leǵ-
No extractable etymology was found for this exact spelling. Open the original dictionary entry ↗
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0112
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
noun combining formexact historical form
-logy
A bound English word element used in formations involving discourse or expression and in names of doctrines, theories, sciences, and fields of study.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verb · noun · adjectiveexact historical form
collect
To bring together, accumulate, infer, or receive; from Latin colligere, literally built with a together-prefix and legere.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun · verbexact historical form
dialogue
Conversation, represented speech, or an exchange of ideas; inherited through medieval French and Latin from a Greek speaking-family.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounexact historical form
intellect
The power or capacity of knowing and reasoning, inherited from Latin intellectus and intellegere.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounexact historical form
intelligence
Capacity for understanding, information, or the organizations that gather it; inherited through French from Latin intelligentia.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjectiveexact historical form
intelligent
Having or showing understanding, judgment, or mental capacity; borrowed from the Latin participle of intellegere.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun · verbexact historical form
lecture
A formal instructional talk, named through a Latin lineage whose central action was reading.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjective · nounexact historical form
legal
Of law or permitted by law; borrowed through Anglo-French from Latin lēgālis and lēx.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounexact historical form
legend
A traditional story or explanatory inscription, descended from Latin “things to be read.”
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjectiveexact historical form
legible
Capable of being read or deciphered; from Late Latin legibilis and Latin legere “to read.”
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounexact historical form
legislation
The making of laws or laws collectively; from French and Late Latin legislatio, a law-proposing or law-bearing formation.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounexact historical form
lesson
A unit of instruction or something learned, descending through a word that first named an act or selection of reading.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗028
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
*
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*leǵ-
to collect, gather; with descendants involving speaking
- DATE
- Indo-European prehistory
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 15
Beyond secure reconstruction
UNKNOWN
No deeper ancestor is promoted beyond the live *leǵ- / *sleǵ- dispute.
- DATE
- before the disputed gather reconstruction
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Beyond secure reconstruction
UNKNOWN
No deeper ancestor is promoted beyond the live *leǵ- / *sleǵ- dispute.
- DATE
- before the disputed gather reconstruction
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Beyond secure reconstruction
UNKNOWN
No deeper ancestor is promoted beyond the live *leǵ- / *sleǵ- dispute.
- DATE
- before the disputed gather reconstruction
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Beyond secure reconstruction
UNKNOWN
No deeper ancestor is promoted beyond the live *leǵ- / *sleǵ- dispute.
- DATE
- before the disputed gather reconstruction
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Beyond secure reconstruction
UNKNOWN
No deeper ancestor is promoted beyond the live *leǵ- / *sleǵ- dispute.
- DATE
- before the disputed gather reconstruction
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Beyond secure reconstruction
UNKNOWN
No deeper ancestor is promoted beyond the disputed comparison of lēx with *leǵ- / *sleǵ-.
- DATE
- before the disputed law-and-gather comparison
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Beyond secure reconstruction
UNKNOWN
No deeper ancestor is promoted beyond the live *leǵ- / *sleǵ- dispute.
- DATE
- before the disputed gather reconstruction
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
0321
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 9
openproposedposition text
Is the deepest root *leǵ- or *sleǵ-?
The traditional *leǵ- reconstruction remains widely represented, while published scholarship argues that the gather or collect root began with *s. The graph preserves both analyses.
openproposedposition text
Is *leǵ- the only published deepest root shape?
No. The traditional *leǵ- analysis remains widely represented, while a published *sleǵ- reconstruction challenges the initial consonant and cautions against a simple semantic tale.
openproposedposition text
Is *leǵ- the only published root shape behind intelligent?
No. The traditional *leǵ- analysis remains probable, while *sleǵ- is a published alternative. Neither reconstructed shape is treated as an attested word.
openproposedposition text
Can Latin lēx and Germanic law converge at *legh-?
Possibly, but uncertain. American Heritage presents Latin lēx from *leǵ- as one analysis and separately allows a possible “laid down” route from *legh-.
openproposedposition text
Did Latin lēx originally mean a “collection of rules”?
That semantic bridge and the deeper gather-root connection are plausible published analyses, not an uncontested fact. The root shape *leǵ- versus *sleǵ- is also disputed.
openproposedposition text
Is *leǵ- the only published deepest root shape?
No. Latin legere is traditionally compared with *leǵ-, while *sleǵ- remains a published alternative.
openproposedposition text
Does Latin lēx securely descend from the gather root *leǵ-?
Not securely. A collection-of-rules bridge is plausible and published, but the direction, root shape, and precise cognates remain disputed.
openproposedposition text
Is the deepest root *leǵ- or *sleǵ-?
The traditional *leǵ- reconstruction remains widely represented, while published scholarship argues that the gather/collect root began with *s. The graph preserves both analyses.
openproposedposition text
Is *leǵ- the only published deepest root shape?
No. The traditional *leǵ- analysis remains widely represented, while a published *sleǵ- reconstruction challenges the initial consonant.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 12
RANK 13GRADE Aexact revealing root
Legislation came before legislate.
The noun preserves a Latin law-bearing or law-proposing compound. English legislate was later back-formed from the already existing noun family.
RANK 17GRADE Aexact revealing root
-logy never simply meant “the study of.”
The bound form’s recorded range includes expression and discourse as well as doctrine, theory, science, and study. Its trail reaches Greek logos—word, speech, account, reckoning, reason—rather than a prehistoric word meaning “science.”
RANK 71GRADE Aexact revealing root
Dialogue never meant “speech limited to two.”
Greek dia- means through, across, or between. Confusing it with the numeral prefix di- produced a durable but false restriction.
RANK 165GRADE Aexact revealing root
Intelligent did not descend from English intelligence.
English intelligent is borrowed from a Latin present participle. Intelligence follows a sibling French and Latin abstract-noun route; the words meet deeper than modern English.
RANK 167GRADE Aexact revealing root
A prologue is speech before.
Greek prologos combines pro- “before” with logos “speech or discourse.” The modern general introduction grows from that theatrical structure.
RANK 174GRADE Aexact revealing root
Collect almost says its Latin construction aloud.
Latin colligere joins com- with legere: gathering together. Unlike many dramatic semantic reversals, the modern English core remains strikingly close to the historical construction.
RANK 191GRADE Aexact revealing root
Legal is not descended from English law.
The meanings meet; the family trees do not. legal is Latin, while law is Germanic and Scandinavian.
RANK 197GRADE A−exact revealing root
Legible belongs to gathering and reading.
Late Latin legibilis means able to be read and comes from legere, the Latin gather, select, and read family.
RANK 203GRADE Aexact revealing root
A lesson began as a reading.
Anglo-French leçon and Late Latin lectio name reading before the word expands into instruction and something learned from experience.
RANK 206GRADE Aexact revealing root
A legend was “something to be read.”
The dubious-story sense came later than the Medieval Latin reading category.
RANK 207GRADE Aexact revealing root
A lecture began as reading, not speaking.
Latin lectūra named an act of reading before English made it a discourse.
RANK 208GRADE A-exact revealing root
To select is to gather apart.
Latin seligere combines se- “apart” with legere “gather, select.” The same gathering verb sits behind lecture, lesson, legend, and collect.
040
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “*leǵ-.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
050
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “*leǵ-.” 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.