lax

lax

See also: LAX and Lax

Translingual

Etymology

Clipping of English Lalung with x as a placeholder.

Symbol

lax

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Tiwa.

See also

  • Wiktionary’s coverage of Tiwa terms

English

WOTD – 6 May 2009

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /læks/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (General Australian):(file)
  • Rhymes: -æks
  • Homophones: lacs, lacks, lakhs (one pronunciation)

Alternative forms

Etymology 1

    From Middle English lax, from Old English leax (salmon), from Proto-West Germanic *lahs (salmon), from Proto-Germanic *lahsaz (salmon), from Proto-Indo-European *laḱs- (salmon, trout). Cognate with Middle Dutch lacks, lachs, lasche (salmon), Middle Low German las (salmon), German Lachs (salmon), Norwegian laks (salmon), Danish laks (salmon), Swedish lax (salmon), Icelandic lax (salmon), Lithuanian lašišà (salmon), Latvian lasis, Russian лосо́сь (losósʹ, salmon), Albanian leshterik (eel-grass). Doublet of lox.

    Noun

    lax (plural laxes)

    1. (now chiefly UK dialectal, Scotland) A salmon.
    Derived terms

    Etymology 2

      Borrowed from Latin laxus (wide, roomy, loose).

      Adjective

      lax (comparative laxer, superlative laxest)

      1. Lenient and allowing for deviation; not strict.
        Synonyms: permissive, lenient, relaxed; see also Thesaurus:lenient
        Antonym: strict
        The rules are fairly lax, but you have to know which ones you can bend.
        • 1886, John Addington Symonds, Philip Sidney:
          Society at that epoch was lenient, if not lax, in matters of the passions.
      2. Loose; not tight or taut.
        Synonyms: loose, slack
        Antonyms: taut, tight
        The rope fell lax.
        • 1701, John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation, [], 3rd edition, London: [] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, [], →OCLC, part II, page 355:
          The Fleſh of this ſort of [cartilaginous] Fiſh being lax and ſpungy, and nothing ſo firm, ſolid and weighty as that of the bony Fiſhes, and there being a good quantity of Air contained in the Cavity of their Abdomen, they cannot ſink in the Water without letting in ſome of it by theſe Holes (the Orifices whereof are opened and ſhut at pleaſure by the help of Muſcles provided for that purpoſe) into the hollow of their Bellies, whereby they preponderate the Water and deſcend; []
        • 1979, “Genetical Studies on Dense and Lax Panicles In Rice”, in Japan. J. Breed., volume 29, number 2, page 151:
          Sreedharan and Mirsa (1973) reported that two lax panicle mutants, designated as nude panicle mutation, were obtained from the M2 of two rice cultivars.
      3. Lacking care; neglectful, negligent.
        Synonyms: blameworthy, lash, negligent, remiss, reprehensible
        • 1956 September, “Notes and News: The Barby Sidings Accident Report”, in Railway Magazine, page 638:
          The guard was paying no attention whatever to the running of his train, in total disregard of rules, and, as the recently-published report of a Ministry of Transport Inspecting Officer of Railways shows, there were other disquieting features in the case, such as ignorance on the part of responsible men of rules and appendix instructions and a lax attitude to regulations of which they professed to be aware, combined with failure to look at staff notice boards.
        • 2011 October 1, Phil Dawkes, “Sunderland 2 – 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport[1]:
          Prior to this match, Albion had only scored three league goals all season, but Wes Brown's lax marking allowed Morrison to head in their fourth from a Chris Brunt free-kick and then, a minute later, the initial squandering of possession and Michael Turner's lack of pace let Long run through to slot in another.
      4. (mathematics) Describing an associative monoidal functor.
      5. (archaic) Having a looseness of the bowels; diarrheal.
      6. (linguistics) (of a vowel) Produced with relatively little constriction of the vocal tract.
        Synonym: slack
        Antonym: tense
      Derived terms
      Translations

      Etymology 3

      By replacement of the syllable crosse with the cross-shaped letter x.

      Noun

      lax (uncountable)

      1. (slang) lacrosse.
        • 2010, Kate Kingsley, Pretty on the Outside, page 79:
          “I'm not playing lax this term,” Mimah said.
      Derived terms

      Etymology 4

      Noun

      lax (plural laxes)

      1. (informal) Clipping of laxative.

      Anagrams

      Ahtna

      Stem

      lax

      1. Verbal stem occurring in the following root, aspect, and mode combinations:
      Aspect Imperfective Perfective Future Optative
      Momentaneous laex (fish swim)
      Neuter laex (fish swim) laex (fish swim)
      Transitional laa (many)
      Reversitative laex (fish swim) laex (fish swim) laex (fish swim)
      Progressive laex (fish swim)
      Customary laex (fish swim) laex (fish swim) laex (fish swim) laex (fish swim)

      Azerbaijani

      Etymology

      Borrowed from Classical Persian لق.

      Adjective

      lax (comparative daha lax, superlative ən lax)

      1. shaky, unsteady, rickety, wobbly
      2. loose, spacious, loose-fitting
      3. rotten (of eggs)
        lax yumurtarotten egg
      4. (Baku, Salyan) untruthful
      5. (Gadabay, Nakhchivan, Ordubad) meaningless

      Derived terms

      Further reading

      • lax” in Obastan.com.

      Catalan

      Etymology

      Learned borrowing from Latin laxus.

      Pronunciation

      Adjective

      lax (feminine laxa, masculine plural laxos, feminine plural laxes)

      1. loose, lax, slack
        Synonym: fluix
        Antonym: tens

      Further reading

      Dacian

      Noun

      lax

      1. The edible wild purslane plant.

      German

      Etymology

        Borrowed from Latin laxus.

        Pronunciation

        Adjective

        lax (strong nominative masculine singular laxer, comparative laxer, superlative am laxesten)

        1. lax
        2. (morale or ethics) easy, loose

        Declension

        Further reading

        • lax” in Duden online
        • lax”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache[2] (in German)

        Hlai

        Pronunciation

        • IPA(key): [la˥˥]

        Verb

        lax

        1. to eat

        Icelandic

        Etymology

        From Old Norse lax, from Proto-Germanic *lahsaz.

        Pronunciation

        • IPA(key): [laxs], [laks]

        Noun

        lax m (genitive singular lax, nominative plural laxar)

        1. salmon

        Declension

        Declension of lax (masculine)
        singular plural
        indefinite definite indefinite definite
        nominative lax laxinn laxar laxarnir
        accusative lax laxinn laxa laxana
        dative laxi laxinum löxum löxunum
        genitive lax laxins laxa laxanna

        Derived terms

        • laxbleikur:
        • laxbleikur litur m
        • stinglax m

        Latin

        Etymology

        From Proto-Italic *laks, from the same source as laciō (entice).[1]

        Pronunciation

        Noun

        lax f (genitive lacis); third declension (hapax legomenon)

        1. deception, fraud

        Declension

        Third-declension noun.

        Synonyms

        References

        1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “laciō”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 321
        • lax”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
        • lax”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

        Anagrams

        Lower Tanana

        Etymology 1

          From Proto-Athabaskan *leˑx̣. Cognate with Ahtna laex.

          Root

          lax

          1. a singular fish swims
          2. an animal swims underwater
          Stem set
          Aspect Imperfective Perfective Future Optative
          Momentaneous lax lax lax lax
          Derived terms

          References

          • Kari, James et al. (2024), Kari, James, editor, Lower Tanana Dene Dictionary, Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center, →ISBN, pages 272-273

          Etymology 2

            See the etymology of the various root forms.

            Stem

            lax

            1. Verbal stem occurring in the following root, aspect, and mode combinations:
            Aspect Imperfective Perfective Future Optative
            Transitional la (be)
            lok (happen)
            la (be)
            lok (happen)
            la (be)
            Reversitative la (be)
            lo (classify plural)
            la (be)
            lo (classify plural)
            la (be)
            lo (classify plural)
            Reversitative (Toklat-Bearpaw) dhon (tan) dhon (tan) dhon (tan)
            Persistive lo (classify plural) lo (classify plural) lo (classify plural) lo (classify plural)

            Middle English

            Alternative forms

            Etymology

            From Old English leax, from Proto-West Germanic *lahs, from Proto-Germanic *lahsaz.

            Pronunciation

            • IPA(key): /laks/, /lɛks/

            Noun

            lax (plural lax or laxes)

            1. salmon

            Descendants

            • English: lax
            • Scots: lax

            References

            Old Norse

            Etymology

            From Proto-Germanic *lahsaz. Cognate with Old English leax, German Lachs, English lox, Old High German lahs, Yiddish לאַקס (laks).

            Noun

            lax m (genitive lax, plural laxar)

            1. (zoology) salmon

            Declension

            Declension of lax (strong a-stem)
            masculine singular plural
            indefinite definite indefinite definite
            nominative lax laxinn laxar laxarnir
            accusative lax laxinn laxa laxana
            dative laxi laxinum lǫxum lǫxunum
            genitive lax laxins laxa laxanna

            Derived terms

            • Laxárdalr

            Descendants

            Further reading

            • Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), “lax”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press; also available at the Internet Archive

            Old Swedish

            Etymology

            From Old Norse lax, from Proto-Germanic *lahsaz.

            Noun

            lax m

            1. (zoology) salmon

            Declension

            Declension of lax (strong a-stem)
            masculine singular plural
            indefinite definite indefinite definite
            nominative lax laxin laxar laxanir, laxaner
            accusative lax laxin laxa laxana
            dative laxi, laxe laxinum, laxenom laxum, laxom laxumin, laxomen
            genitive lax laxins laxa laxanna

            Descendants

            Romanian

            Etymology

            Borrowed from Latin laxus.

            Adjective

            lax m or n (feminine singular laxă, masculine plural lacși, feminine/neuter plural laxe)

            1. lax

            Declension

            Declension of lax
            singular plural
            masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
            nominative-
            accusative
            indefinite lax laxă lacși laxe
            definite laxul laxa lacșii laxele
            genitive-
            dative
            indefinite lax laxe lacși laxe
            definite laxului laxei lacșilor laxelor

            Swedish

            Etymology

            From Old Norse lax, from Proto-Germanic *lahsaz.

            The 1000 SEK sense probably refers to the salmon color of old 1000 SEK banknotes. Compare the similarly themed older slang skäring, from skär (pink); räka (prawn); tegel (brick); and röding (char), from röd (red); all referring to the red-pinkish color of old 1000 SEK banknotes. Color and animal-related nicknames for banknotes used to be quite common. Other examples include grönsiska (siskin; 6 riksdaler 32 skillingar), kanariefågel (canary bird; 32 skillingar), and fågel blå (blue bird; 500 riksdaler).

            Another possibility is a Romani origin, then derived from Hindi लाख (lākh, 100,000), from Sanskrit लक्ष (lakṣa), but such a Romani word has not been attested. Cf. lakan with the same meaning.

            Pronunciation

            • IPA(key): /laks/
            • Audio:(file)
            • Rhymes: -aks
            • Homophone: lacks

            Noun

            lax c

            1. salmon (fish)
              laxar som simmar uppströms
              salmon swimming upstream
              odla lax
              farm salmon
            2. salmon (meat)
              Citronpeppar är gott till lax
              Lemon pepper is good on salmon
            3. (slang) A thousand of some unit of currency, typically SEK.
              Synonyms: lakan, långschal, skäring, papp, lök

            Declension

            Derived terms

            References

            • lax”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
            • lax”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
            • lax”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
            • Monica Golabiewski Lannby (3 December 2009), “Sedlarna som satte färg på språket”, in Språktidningen[3], retrieved 26 November 2021
            • Monica Golabiewski Lannby (2009), “’LAXAR’ – de skära tusenlapparna”, in Svensk numismatisk tidskrift[4], number 8, Svenska numismatiska föreningen
            • Gerd Carling (2005), “lax”, in Romani i svenskan: Storstadsslang och standardspråk, Stockholm: Carlsson, →ISBN, page 89