leave
/liːv/verb, noun
depart, permit, or permission to depart
From Proto-Indo-European *leip- / *leyp- (to stick) + Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (to love).
Lineage
*leip- / *leyp-
*lewbʰ-
The story
One spelling is carrying two ancient suitcases. The verb leave comes from a Germanic causative meaning roughly “cause to remain,” built on an older idea of sticking or staying put; only later, around 1200, did “leave behind” become “go away.” That sticky ancestry has surprising relatives: Greek words for grease and Sanskrit terms meaning “to smear” belong to the same semantic neighborhood, while German bleiben still preserves the old “remain” sense. The noun leave, as in “ask for leave,” is a separate family, from an Indo-European root meaning “love” or “hold dear”—permission was something a superior graciously granted, not an automatic entitlement. English once had belive, meaning “remain,” but confusion with another verb helped push it out of use, leaving modern English with one especially versatile leave. So when you leave a room, remember: the word began by making something stay, while its noun began as a favor someone cared enough to grant.
Modern usage
Used in crude joke setups, including “leave my balls in your mouth,” and in threatening expressions such as “don’t leave or I’ll cut you.”
- Heard in
- internet slang · sexual humor · threatening slang
- See
- Urban Dictionary entries
Words from the same roots
*leip- / *leyp- · Proto-Indo-European, ‘to stick, adhere; fat’
Derivedbelive, remain, relinquish, reluctant, lipid
*lewbʰ- · Proto-Indo-European, ‘to love, hold dear’
Derivedlove, furlough, leave-taking, permission
Sources
- Etymonlineleave, belive, leave-taking, relinquish, furlough
- Urban Dictionaryleave
- Wiktionaryleave