A Dictionary of Cont..

were acceptable spoken English in the ‘United
States and they are found in the writings of
Thackeray, the Brontes, R. L. Stevenson. But the
construction is now old-fashioned. As a matter
of fact, it is heard chiefly in the speech of educated
people who consider it amusing to say
leave us go and leave us not. Leave alone is also
unacceptable when used in place of the idiomatic
let alone to mean “not to mention,” as in Z
couldn’t get a girl, leave alone a woman, to
help me.
The word leave may be used as a noun to
mean departure or leave of absence. In literary
English the one form leave is used in speaking of
one person or of several, as in they took their
leave, they were all given leave. A plural form
leaves is sometimes used in the army. (For Z had
as leave, see lief.)
leave no stone unturned. When Polycrates asked
the Delphian oracle how he should go about
finding a treasure presumably buried by Mardonius,
one of Xerxes’ generals, on the field of
Plataea (479 B.C.). the oracle answered. “Move
every stone.” Sin& the battle covered’s great
deal of rocky terrain, the phrase became a proverb
for immense and thorough industry. It
achieved its present form in English in the early
sixteenth century and is now a clichC. Like many
clichCs, however, it has a certain value, especially
for the witty, in the fact that it is a clich6,
that one can count on its being known to everyone.
Thus when Ogden Nash says that when he
throws rocks at seabirds he leaves no tern unstoned,
the joke is posited on the clichC.
leave strictly (severely) alone. The injunction to
leave something or someone severely or strictly
alone must be regarded as a clichC. The meaning
seems to be in an ellipsis: leave it alone in strict
or severe conformity to the instructions given.
leaves. This is the plural of leaf.
leaves much to be desired is a trite and tedious
way of saying unsatisfactory.
led. See lead.
lee. See lea.
lees. This word, meaning dregs, once had a singular
form, as in the gross lees settle quickly and
also the flying lee in time. Shakespeare uses the
plural form with a singular verb in the wine of
life is drawn and the mere lees is left. Neither
of these constructions is standard today. Lees is
now treated as a mass word with a plural form.
It is always followed by a plural verb, as in the
lees are bitter, but we do not speak of a lee or of
several lees.
left. See leave.
left-handed compliment. Most of the age-old, sinister
(sinister means left) associations and connotations
of left-handedness have disappeared
and the phrase a left-handed compliment, an
ambiguous compliment which on reflection turns
out to be an insult, is now a clichC.
left in the lurch. Lurch was a game resembling
backgammon, played in the sixteenth century.
When one incurred a lurch he had scored nothing
or was so far behind his opponent as to be
271 lemma
helpless. Hence the figurative meaning of leaving
someone in a helpless plight. But all awareness
of the original meaning has faded and to
leave someone in the lurch is now a hackneyed
phrase.
There was an older form of the expression,
to leave someone in the lash. But even linguists
have been unable to discover its original
meaning.
legal; lawful; licit. That is legal which conforms
to the prescriptions of authority, especially those
of a sovereign or state (There are many thing.s
which are legal which a man of strict honor
would not do). That is lawful which is permitted
by law or recognized or sanctioned by law
(lawful marriage, lawful heirs). It is synonymous
with legal (legal rights, lawful rights),
though in this sense it is now slightly archaic,
but it has more figurative uses than legal which
is exact and restricted. Legal always means in
conformity to human law; lawful is often used
to mean in conformity with moral and religious
precepts.
Licit means legal. It is not often used except
in the phrase licit or illicit in reference to business
transactions. See also illegal.
legionary; legionnaire. A member of the American
Legion, an organization of military veterans,
is called a legionnaire. A member of the
British Legion, the corresponding organization
in England, is called a legionary. A member of
a Roman legion or of the French Foreign Legion
is in England called a legionary (though some
English when referring to the French soldier
call him by the French term, legionnaire, and
Thomas Hardy calls a member of a Roman
legion a legionnaire). In America, except among
the learned who might employ Zegionary to designate
a Roman soldier, legionnaire is used at
all times.
legislator; legislature. A legislator is one who
gives or makes laws. A legislature, made up of
legislators, is the legislative, law-making body of
a country or state.
legitimate drama (stage, theater). The Oxford
English Dictionary defines legitimate drama as
the body of plays, Shakespearian and other, that
have a recognized theatrical and literary merit
-as opposed, for example, to farce and melodrama.
In the United States (where it is often
shortened to legitimate and in slang legit), legitimate
drama has widened and shifted its sense to
mean any drama, including farce and melodrama,
produced on the stage-as opposed to
that which is presented in motion pictures, on
radio or television (Mrs. Carter, with no legitimate
vehicle in sight, has accepted a part in a
radio serial. Z was in legitimate at the old
Alcazar).
leg to stand on, not a. As a term for having no
logical or factual basis, not a leg to stand on is
a clich6.
leitmotif. See motive.
lemma. The plural is lemmas or lemmntu, not
lemmae.