entry
levant
/lɪˈvænt/Eastern Mediterranean lands; to abscond
From Latin via French lev- / lever (to raise).
from PIE root *legwh- "not heavy, having little weight"). So called because the region was (from Western Europe) in the...
from Latin levō + -ant. ==== Pronunciation ==== IPA(key): /lɪˈvænt/ ==== Noun ==== levant (plural levants)
from French levant "the Orient" (12c.)
+1 more sourcefrom French levant "the Orient" (12c.)
+1 more sourcefrom French levant "the Orient" (12c.)
+1 more sourceWord Ancestry
from PIE root *legwh- "not heavy, having little weight"). So called because the region was (from Western Europe) in the...
from Latin levō + -ant. ==== Pronunciation ==== IPA(key): /lɪˈvænt/ ==== Noun ==== levant (plural levants)
from French levant "the Orient" (12c.)
+1 more sourcefrom French levant "the Orient" (12c.)
+1 more sourcefrom French levant "the Orient" (12c.)
+1 more sourcePicture a medieval traveler standing in France and pointing toward the place where the sun comes up. That instinctive gesture got baptized into language: French levant, “rising,” from lever, “to rise.” The same Latin family gives us elevate, alleviate, and levity, all words that still carry the odd little idea of being made lighter. And then English, always eager to steal a useful bit of French, turned Levant into the name for the eastern Mediterranean—essentially “the place where the sun rises” as seen from the west. The shadowy verb sense, “to vanish after cheating someone,” is a different kind of rising: not a sunrise, but somebody lifting himself out the door.
The Story
Picture a medieval traveler standing in France and pointing toward the place where the sun comes up. That instinctive gesture got baptized into language: French levant, “rising,” from lever, “to rise.” The same Latin family gives us elevate, alleviate, and levity, all words that still carry the odd little idea of being made lighter. And then English, always eager to steal a useful bit of French, turned Levant into the name for the eastern Mediterranean—essentially “the place where the sun rises” as seen from the west. The shadowy verb sense, “to vanish after cheating someone,” is a different kind of rising: not a sunrise, but somebody lifting himself out the door.
Kin & Kindred
From 'lev- / lever'·to raise; rise; eastward, toward sunrise
Derived Terms
English words from this root