lithe

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See also: liþe and -lithe

English

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /laɪð/, (US also) /laɪθ/, (nonstandard) /lɪθ/ (compare lissom)
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪð

Etymology 1

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From Middle English lithe, from Old English līþe (“gentle, mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *linþ(ī), from Proto-Germanic *linþaz, from Proto-Indo-European *lentos.

Akin to Saterland Frisian lied (“thin, skinny, gaunt”), Danish, Dutch, and archaic German lind (“mild”). Some sources also list Latin lenis (“soft”) and/or Latin lentus (“supple”) as possible cognates.

Adjective

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lithe (comparative lither, superlative lithest)

  1. (obsolete) Mild; calm.
    Synonyms: clement, gentle, mellow
    lithe weather
  2. Slim but not skinny.
    Synonyms: lithesome, lissome, swack; see also Thesaurus:slender
    lithe body
    • 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 2:
      She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had expected to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven, burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.
    • 1997, David Foster Wallace, “Getting Away From Already Pretty Much Being Away From It All”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Kindle edition, Little, Brown Book Group:
      The coaches are grim, tan, lithe-looking women, clearly twirlers once, on the far side of their glory now and very serious-looking, each with a clipboard and whistle.
  3. Capable of being easily bent; flexible.
    Synonyms: pliant, flexible, limber; see also Thesaurus:flexible
    the elephant’s lithe trunk.
    • 1861, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Elsie Venner, page 125
      … she danced with a kind of passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with flexuous grace …
    • 1900, Grant Allen, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter VIII, in Hilda Wade:
      Doolittle and myself waited. Colebrook kept on cautiously, squirming his long body in sinuous waves like a lizard's through the grass, and was soon lost to us. No snake could have been lither.
  4. Adaptable.
    • 2018 March 8, Eric Asimov, “Bubbles, With Joy: Pétillant Naturel’s Triumphant Return”, in The New York Times‎[1]:
      Yet the 2016 Éxilé rosé from Lise et Bertrand Jousset in the Loire Valley, made mostly of gamay, was yeasty let[sic – meaning yet] light and lithe, while the 2016 Indigeno from Ancarani in Emilia-Romagna, made of trebbiano, was taut and earthy.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English lithen, from Old English līþian, līþigian, līþegian (“to soften, calm, mitigate, assuage, appease, be mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *linþijan, from Proto-Germanic *linþijaną (“to soften”), from Proto-Indo-European *lento- (“bendsome, resilient”). Cognate with German lindern (“to alleviate, ease, relieve”).

Verb

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lithe (third-person singular simple present lithes, present participle lithing, simple past and past participle lithed)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To become calm.
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To make soft or mild; soften; alleviate; mitigate; lessen; smooth; palliate.
    • a. 1652, Thomas Adams, Physic from Heaven:
      England.. hath now suppled, lithed and stretched their throats.
    • 1642, Daniel Rogers, Naaman the Syrian: His Disease and Cure:
      Give me also faith, Lord,.. to lithe, to form, and to accommodate my spirit and members.

Etymology 3

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From Middle English lithen, from Old Norse hlýða (“to listen”), from Proto-Germanic *hliuþijaną (“to listen”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”).

Cognate with Danish lytte (“to listen”). Related to Old English hlēoþor (“noise, sound, voice, song, hearing”), Old English hlūd (“loud, noisy, sounding, sonorous”). More at loud.

Alternative forms

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Verb

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lithe (third-person singular simple present lithes, present participle lithing, simple past and past participle lithed)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To attend; listen, hearken.
  2. (transitive) To listen to, hearken to.

Etymology 4

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Uncertain; perhaps an alteration of lewth.

Noun

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lithe (plural lithes)

  1. (Scotland) Shelter.
    • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song:
      So Cospatric got him the Pict folk to build a strong castle there in the lithe of the hills, with the Grampians dark and bleak behind it, and he had the Den drained and he married a Pict lady and got on her bairns and he lived there till he died.

Etymology 5

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From Old English liðan.

Verb

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lithe (third-person singular simple present lithes, present participle lithing, simple past and past participle lithed)

  1. (archaic, dialect, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire) to thicken (gravy, etc.)
    • 1902, Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, Oxford University Press, page 624:
      lithe widely used as a verb in nEng Sc and Ir, as a noun only in Cu
    • 1933, C.T. Onions, editor, The Oxford English Dictionary, Clarendon Press, page 344:
      to render lithe or thick, to thicken (broth, etc.)
    • 1994, Arnold Kellett, The English Dialect Dictionary, Smith Settle, page 105
      lithe 'to thicken soups, sauces, etc.'
    • 1994, Clive Upton, David Parry, J.D.A. Widdowson, Survey of English Dialects: The Dictionary and Grammar, Croom Helm:
      lithe vt to THICKEN gravy V7.7 la:ð Y, laɪð Y Nt L, laɪð La Nt L

Anagrams

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Middle English

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Etymology 1

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Noun

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lithe (plural lithes)

  1. Alternative form of light

Etymology 2

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Noun

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lithe

  1. Alternative form of lyth
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