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PERMANENT SOURCE RECORD

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BIBLIOGRAPHIC IDENTITYmw-legal

SOURCE
RECORD.

One work. Every claim that depends on it. No citation without a consequence you can inspect.

CLAIM-LEVEL USAGE

13 PUBLIC LINKS INTO THE GRAPH.

This count excludes duplicate dossier-path citations. Open the claims below to see exactly how the source is used.

historical dictionarymw-legal

Legal — Word History

AUTHOR / EDITOR
Merriam-Webster Editors
YEAR
2026
PUBLISHER
Merriam-Webster
DOI
Not recorded
SOURCE TYPE
historical dictionary
EXTERNAL RECORD
OPEN ORIGINAL ↗
3CANONICAL EDGES
1WITNESSES
2COMPARISONS
1CONTEXT LINKS
2RANKED REVEALS
2DISPUTES
2JOURNEY STAGES
2WORD DOSSIERS
01

CONTRARIAN TRUTH CLAIMS

RANKED REVEALS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE

2
RANK 183GRADE A−supports

Law and legal are semantic twins, not direct relatives.

Law comes from Scandinavian “what is laid down”; legal comes from Latin lēx. Only a possible, explicitly uncertain prehistoric route may reconnect them.

*legh-

*legh- → *lagam → lǫg / lög; lag → lagu → lawe / laue → law

Word History: Latin legalis from lex

Documents legal's distinct immediate ancestry.

law dossier ↗truth record ↗83UNVEILING
02

SCHOLARLY DISAGREEMENT

DISPUTE POSITIONS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE

2
resolvedsupportsestablished

Is English law the source of legal—or vice versa?

No. Law comes through Old English lagu from Scandinavian; legal comes through Anglo-French and Latin legalis from lēx. Their shared modern subject matter is not an immediate genealogical relationship.

Word History: Anglo-French legal from Latin legalis and lex

Documents legal's distinct immediate Latin route.

law dossier ↗dispute record ↗
03

CANONICAL RELATIONSHIP CLAIMS

EDGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE

3
EDGE 52supportsestablished

legal → legal

Present-Day English → Anglo-French · borrowing

SOUND
English preserved the learned form with later English vowel and stress development.
MEANING
The adjective broadened from juridical status to rule-conformity more generally.
SCHOLAR / EDITOR
Merriam-Webster editors
Etymology and First Known Use
OPEN THE PERMANENT CLAIM ↗
EDGE 53supportsestablished

legal → lēgālis

Anglo-French → Latin · borrowing

SOUND
Anglo-French borrowed Latin lēgālis through regular Romance adaptation.
MEANING
Pertaining to law remained the core sense.
SCHOLAR / EDITOR
Merriam-Webster editors
Etymology
OPEN THE PERMANENT CLAIM ↗
EDGE 54supportsestablished

lēgālis → lēx

Latin → Latin · derivation

SOUND
Latin lēgālis is formed on lēx, leg- “law.”
MEANING
The law noun becomes a relational adjective.
SCHOLAR / EDITOR
Latin lexicography
Latin leg-, lex
OPEN THE PERMANENT CLAIM ↗
04

LEXICAL ATTESTATIONS

WITNESSES REPORTED BY THIS SOURCE

1
05

COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE

COGNATES, DESCENDANTS, AND RELATIVES

2
legal

legality

English

direct derivative of legal

legal

legalize

English

direct derivative of legal

06

GEOGRAPHIC AND TEMPORAL CLAIMS

JOURNEY STAGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE

2
stage 3supports

Anglo-French England

Reports Anglo-French legal from Latin legalis and leg-/lex “law,” directly supporting the medieval transmission stage.

legal→medieval
Word History: Etymology · regional
stage 4supports

Global English

Documents modern law-, institution-, court-, and rule-related senses and dates the first known adjectival English use to the fifteenth century.

legal→15th century–today
Definitions 1–6 and First Known Use · global
07

NON-GENEALOGICAL CONNECTIONS

HISTORICAL CONTEXT, KEPT SEPARATE

1
semantic twins disputed deep convergencesupports

SAME SUBJECT, DIFFERENT WORD HISTORIES

Law reaches Old English lagu and Old Norse lög in the *legh- “lie, lay” family. Legal reaches Latin lēx, usually compared with *leǵ- “gather.” A published alternative allows lēx to come from *legh-, but explicitly calls that route uncertain.

law↔legal
Merriam-Webster · American Heritage Dictionary editors · proposed
08

WORD-FAMILY REUSE

DOSSIERS THAT DEPEND ON THIS SOURCE

2
law3 CLAIM LINKS↗legal11 CLAIM LINKS↗

3 entry-scoped citations map reviewed dossier paths onto the canonical claims above.