Meanings
Word Family
The core idea of this root was:
light in weight, not heavy
It’s the origin of English light (as in “not heavy”, not the shining light) and lung and bunch of words based on the Latin *levare, which was about raising.
Some English relatives:
- light (not heavy)
- lung (the light one)
- lever, leverage (raises, makes light)
- levee (the raised one)
- relief, relieve, relevance (lightening up, raising)
- elevate, elevator (raising)
- alleviate (raising, lightening up)