English

less

/lɛs/
Used for constructing syntactic diminutive comparatives of adjectives and adverbs.

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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    Adverb From Middle English les, lesse, leasse, lasse, from Old English lǣs (“smaller, less”), from Proto-Germanic *laisiz, from Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“to shrink, grow thin, be gentle”). Cognate with Old Frisian lēs (“less”), Old Saxon lēs (“less”). According to Kroonen (2013), from a northern Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *leh₂is- or *leh₃is-, which he connects to Lithuanian liesas (“lean”).

    Determiner and preposition from Middle English lees, lesse, leasse, lasse, from Old English lǣssa (“less”), from Proto-Germanic *laisizan-, from Proto-Germanic *laisiz (“smaller, lesser, fewer, lower”) (see above). Cognate with Old Frisian lessa (“less”).

    Verb from Middle English lessen, from the determiner.

    Noun from Middle English lesse, from the determiner.

    Etymology 2

    From Middle English lesse, les, from Old English lǣs, as in þȳ lǣs þe.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishles
      • inheritedOld Englishlǣs “smaller, less”
        • inheritedProto-Germanic*laisiz “smaller, lesser, fewer, lower”
          • derivedProto-Indo-European*leys- “to trace, track”
            • derivedProto-Indo-European*leh₂is-
      • inheritedMiddle Englishlees
        • inheritedOld Englishlǣssa “less”
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*laisizan-
      • inheritedMiddle Englishlessen
    • inheritedMiddle Englishlesse

    Related: Old Frisian lēs, Old Saxon lēs, Lithuanian liesas, Old Frisian lessa

    Words built on it: unless

    Sources