lithe

lithe

See also: liþe and -lithe

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /laɪð/, US also IPA^(key): /laɪθ/

• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -aɪð

Etymology 1

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 and archaic German lind (“mild”). Some sources also list Latin lenis (“soft”) and/or Latin lentus (“supple”) as possible cognates.

Adjective

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, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter III, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, OCLC 40817384:

     She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought 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 and 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:

     Yet the 2016 Éxilé rosé from Lise et Bertrand Jousset in the Loire Valley, made mostly of gamay, was yeasty let light and lithe, while the 2016 Indigeno from Ancarani in Emilia-Romagna, made of trebbiano, was taut and earthy.

Derived terms

• litheness
• slithy

Related terms

• -inda
• lind
• linden
• Linda

Translations

mild, calm

Bulgarian: лек (bg) (lek) Dutch: kalm (nl), rustig (nl) German: ruhig (de), mild (de) Portuguese: calmo (pt), tranquilo (pt) Swedish: lugn (sv)

slim

Bulgarian: строен (bg) (stroen) Dutch: slank (nl) Finnish: solakka (fi) French: svelte (fr), élancé (fr) German: schlank (de) Irish: scaoilte Latvian: slaids Swedish: smärt (sv), slank (sv)

flexible

Bulgarian: гъвкав (bg) (gǎvkav), подвижен (bg) (podvižen) Dutch: soepel (nl) Finnish: notkea (fi), taipuisa (fi), norja (fi) French: souple (fr) m or f German: elastisch (de) Hungarian: hajlékony (hu), ruganyos (hu) Irish: scaoilte, ligthe Maori: moruki Swedish: smidig (sv), böjlig (sv)

Etymology 2

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

Verb

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

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

• lythe

Verb

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

Uncertain; perhaps an alteration of lewth.

Noun

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.

Anagrams

• Leith, Theil, Thiel, lieth

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Middle English

Noun

lithe (plural lithes)

1. Alternative form of light

Noun

lithe

1. Alternative form of lyth