Etymology
1. "speak falsely," O.E.
legan, ligan, earlier
leogan (class II strong verb; past tense
leag, pp.
logen), from P.Gmc.
*leugan (cf. O.N.
ljuga, Dan.
lyve, O.Fris.
liaga, Ger.
lügen, Goth.
liugan), from PIE base
*leugh- "to tell a lie."
2. From Middle English lien, liggen, from Old English liċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *liggjan, from Proto-Germanic *ligjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-.
3. Cognates
4. Cognate with Yola lee, lidge (“to lie”), leigh, leiough (“to idle”), North Frisian lade, lai, laie, lei, lii, läde, läie (“to lie; to lay”), Saterland Frisian lääse (“to lie; to lay”), West Frisian lizze (“to lie”), Alemannic German ligge (“to lie”), Central Franconian lijje (“to lie”), Dutch and Dutch Low Saxon liggen (“to lie”), German liegen (“to lie”), German Low German ligge, liggen (“to lie”), Luxembourgish leien (“to lie”), Yiddish ליגן (lign, “to lie”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål ligge (“to lie”), Faroese and Icelandic liggja (“to lie”), Norwegian Nynorsk ligge, liggja, liggje (“to lie”), Swedish ligga (“to lie”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (ligan, “to lie, to rest”); and with Irish laigh, luigh (“to lie”), Manx lhie (“lie; lay”), Scottish Gaelic laigh (“lie; lay”), Faliscan 𐌋𐌄𐌂𐌄𐌕 (lecet, “he lies down”), Latin lectus (“bed”), South Picene 𐌅𐌄𐌉𐌀𐌕 (veiat, “to lie”), Ancient Greek λέχομαι (lékhomai, “to lie down”), Albanian lag (“band, encampment, troop”), Belarusian ляжа́ць (ljažácʹ, “to lie”), Bulgarian лежа́ (ležá, “to lie”), Czech ležet (“to lie”), Macedonian лежи (leži, “to lie”), Polish leżeć (“to lie”), Russian лежа́ть (ležátʹ, “to lie”), Serbo-Croatian лѐжати, lèžati (“to lie”), Slovene ležáti (“to lie”), Ukrainian лежа́ти (ležáty, “to lie”), Tocharian B lyäk- (“to lie”).
5. As a noun for position, the noun has the same etymology above as the verb. See: Middle English '
lien', Proto-Germanic '
*ligjaną', Frisian, Northern 'lade', Frisian, Saterlandic 'lääse', Alemannic German '
ligge', German, old spelling '
liegen', Luxembourgish '
leien', Norwegian, nynorsk '
ligge', Swedish '
ligga', Irish '
laigh', Manx '
lhie', Scots Gaelic '
laigh', Greek, Ancient '
λέχομαι', Albanian '
lag', Belarusan '
ляжа́ць', Czech '
ležet', Macedonian '
лежи', Polish '
leżeć', Russian '
лежа́ть', Slovene '
ležáti', Ukrainian '
лежа́ти'.
Verbs referencing "lie"
German, Pennsylvania
liege, Norwegian, nynorsk
liggja, German, old spelling
liegen, Low Saxon liggen, German, old spelling
lügen, Greek, Ancient
λέχομαι, Danish
lyve, Alemannic German
ligge, Danish
ligge, Norwegian
ligge, Luxembourgish
leien, Luxembourgish
léien, German, Pennsylvania
leie.