Etymograph

English

leak

Leak comes from Middle English leken ‘to let water in or out’, from Old English *lecan ‘to leak’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leg-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leg-1‘to leak’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*lekaną1‘to leak, drain’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*lecan1‘to leak’uncertain
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500leken1‘to let water in or out’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1596leak1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English leak
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book VI, Canto VIII: “Yet is the bottle leake, and bag so torne,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*leg-Wiktionary, English leak‘to leak’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*lekanąWiktionary, English leak‘to leak, drain’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*lecanWiktionary, English leak‘to leak’uncertain
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lekenWiktionary, English leak‘to let water in or out’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1596leakWiktionary, English leak. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book VI, Canto VIII: “Yet is the bottle leake, and bag so torne,…”

The story

Related also to Old English leċċan (‘to water, wet’), Albanian lag, lak (‘to damp, make wet’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *leg-

Today it means

noun A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “leak”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *leg- / leak

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