15,000 words and phrases from more than 50 languages and their

185 la nuit tous les chats sont gris
lamba [Hind; fern. Iambi], long; tall. —lamba chauki or (more correctly)
Iambi chauki, long chair; an easy chair with extended arms that serve
as a leg rest: called in western India lamba (or Iambi) kursi.
lamé [Fr], fabric with metallic threads.
lamentando [It], lamenting; sorrowful: music.
lamentevole [It], plaintive; doleful: music.
l'amitié est l'amour sans ailes [Fr], "friendship is love without his
wings": Byron.
lamentoso [It], doleful; sorrowful; mournful: music.
l'amour et la fumée ne peuvent se cacher [Fr], love and smoke cannot
be hidden.
lamproie [Fr], lamprey.
lana caprina [L], goat's wool; a thing nonexistent (as goats have hair);
trifle: Horace (adapted).
lanai [Hawa], veranda; porch.
la nation boutiquière [Fr], the nation of shopkeepers (i.e., England):
epithet used by Napoleon Bonaparte in one of his speeches.
lance-flamme [Fr], flame thrower: mil.
landa [Sp], heath; moor. Cf. LANDE.
landau [Fr fr. Ger], four-wheeled carriage; baby carriage.
landdrost [Du], magistrate: South Africa.
lande [Fr], stretch of wasteland; moor; pi., infertile lowlands near the
sea, as in S.W. France.
Landsting [Dan], upper house, or senate, of the Danish legislature.
Landsturm [Ger], army reserve.
Landtag [Ger], legislature or diet of a German state; in Austria, a
provincial assembly.
Landwehr [Ger], militia.
langage [Fr], language; speech; tongue. —langage de carrefour, lit.,
language of the crossroad; low, vulgar language. —langage des halles,
language of the markets; billingsgate.
langouste [Fr], spiny lobster.
langsam [Ger], slow; slowly; not so fast! gently!
langue [Fr], tongue; language. —langue d'oc, lit., language of oc or
"yes"; a Romance dialect spoken in the Middle Ages in southern
France: so called because of the use of oc for the French affirmative.
—langue d'oïl, lit., language of oil or "yes"; a Romance dialect spoken
in northern France: so called because of the use of oïl (later oui) for
the French affirmative. —langue maternelle, mother tongue; native
tongue or language. —langue verte, lit., green language; slang.
languente [It], languishing; faint: music.
languidamente [It], languidly; faintly: music.
la noche es capa de pecadores [Sp], night is the cloak of sinners.
la nuit tous les chats sont gris [Fr], at night, all cats are gray; in the
dark, everyone looks alike.