Inherited from Old French lé (“wide, broad”, adjective), from Latin lātus.
lé m (plural lés)
From Proto-Uralic *läme. Cognate with Finnish liemi.
lé (plural levek or lék) (the latter is mostly proscribed)
The accusative and the plural form might also be lét and lék, respectively, although the traditional way is with the lev- stem. (The sense “money” uses only the lét/lék form.)
| Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony) | ||
|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | |
| nominative | lé | levek |
| accusative | levet | leveket |
| dative | lének | leveknek |
| instrumental | lével | levekkel |
| causal-final | léért | levekért |
| translative | lévé | levekké |
| terminative | léig | levekig |
| essive-formal | léként | levekként |
| essive-modal | — | — |
| inessive | lében | levekben |
| superessive | lén | leveken |
| adessive | lénél | leveknél |
| illative | lébe | levekbe |
| sublative | lére | levekre |
| allative | léhez | levekhez |
| elative | léből | levekből |
| delative | léről | levekről |
| ablative | létől | levektől |
| non-attributive possessive - singular |
léé | leveké |
| non-attributive possessive - plural |
lééi | levekéi |
| Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, front unrounded harmony) | ||
|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | |
| nominative | lé | lék |
| accusative | lét | léket |
| dative | lének | léknek |
| instrumental | lével | lékkel |
| causal-final | léért | lékért |
| translative | lévé | lékké |
| terminative | léig | lékig |
| essive-formal | léként | lékként |
| essive-modal | — | — |
| inessive | lében | lékben |
| superessive | lén | léken |
| adessive | lénél | léknél |
| illative | lébe | lékbe |
| sublative | lére | lékre |
| allative | léhez | lékhez |
| elative | léből | lékből |
| delative | léről | lékről |
| ablative | létől | léktől |
| non-attributive possessive - singular |
léé | léké |
| non-attributive possessive - plural |
lééi | lékéi |
| Possessive forms of lé | ||
|---|---|---|
| possessor | single possession | multiple possessions |
| 1st person sing. | levem | leveim |
| 2nd person sing. | leved | leveid |
| 3rd person sing. | leve | levei |
| 1st person plural | levünk | leveink |
| 2nd person plural | levetek | leveitek |
| 3rd person plural | levük | leveik |
lé
lé (plus dative, triggers h-prothesis, before the definite article leis)
lé (emphatic léise)
lé
| Norman Definite Articles | ||
|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | |
| masculine | le / l' | les |
| feminine | la / l' | les |
lé m (plural les)
lé
lé m (oblique and nominative feminine singular lee)
lé oblique singular, m (oblique plural lez, nominative singular lez, nominative plural lé)
From Proto-Germanic *lewô, whence also Middle Low German lē, lēhe. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewH- (“to cut”), whence also Ancient Greek λαῖον (laîon, “scythe”).
lé m (genitive ljá, plural ljár)
The word declines as one would expect a weak masculine noun with the stem lé-, but is affected in late West Norse (but not in the Faroe Islands) in all forms except the nominative singular by the regular phonetic change éa > já. In the nominative the regular case ending -i is assimilated into the long é. This also causes awkward application of the suffixed article in the accusative and genitive singular, where one would normally expect its i to be elided in favour of the weak case ending -a (without the change éa > já, these would be *léann and *léans); the accusative singular with suffixed article is attested as ljáinn in Flateyjarbók (late 14th century). Note also that the forms may not all be attested.