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.
        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.
        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.
        • 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.
        Antonym: tense
      Synonyms
      Antonyms
      • (antonym(s) of lenient, not strict): strict
      • (antonym(s) of loose, not tight): taut, tight
      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
      Transitional laa (many)

      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

      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

      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 (SO)
      • lax in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
      • lax in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
      • Monica Golabiewski Lannby (3 December 2009), “Sedlarna som satte färg på språket”, in Språktidningen[2], retrieved 26 November 2021
      • Monica Golabiewski Lannby (2009), “’LAXAR’ – de skära tusenlapparna”, in Svensk numismatisk tidskrift[3], number 8, Svenska numismatiska föreningen
      • Gerd Carling (2005), “lax”, in Romani i svenskan: Storstadsslang och standardspråk, Stockholm: Carlsson, →ISBN, page 89