leger

Borrowed from French léger, assumed to be from Latin leviarius, from levis (“light in weight”). See levity.

leger (comparative more leger, superlative most leger)

1. (obsolete) Light; slender, slim; trivial.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

A variant of ledger.

leger (comparative more leger, superlative most leger)

1. Lying or remaining in a place; hence, resident.

   a leger ambassador

leger (plural legers)

1. An ambassador or minister resident at a court or seat of government; a leiger or lieger.
   • Fuller

     Sir Edward Carne, the queen's leger at Rome

2. (obsolete) Anything that lies in a place; that which, or one who, remains in a place.
3. (obsolete) Alternative form of ledger (“book for keeping notes, especially one for keeping accounting records”)
   • 1822, Nicolas Pike; Chester Dewey, “Book Keeping”, in A New and Complete System of Arithmetick. Composed for the Use of Citizens of the United States, 4th edition, Troy, N.Y.: Printed and published by W[illia]m S. Parker, […], OCLC 10074502, page 490:

     The Leger exhibits at one view the accounts with an individual, as it contains on the Dr. [debt] side whatever he has received, and on the Cr. [credit] side whatever he has paid. […] Let each account be posted from the Day Book in its proper place in the Leger. If a mistake be made, let it be corrected by an account in the Day Book, clearly stating the correction, and then let this account be posted in its proper place in the Leger, that no blot or erasure may disfigure its pages.

   • 1837 December 20, Thomas P. Cope, Speech of Thomas P. Cope of Philadelphia, on Banks and Currency. […], [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Printed at No. 46 Carpenter Street, published 1838, OCLC 476500588, page 9:

     [T]his city of "merchants, whose counting-houses are their churches, whose money is their God, and whose legers, (defaced legers, of course, the delegate from Indiana will understand me,) whose legers are their bibles."

   • 1843, George Leonard, Jr., “Book-keeping. [Book-keeping by Single Entry. Lesson 229.]”, in A Practical Treatise on Arithmetic, […], 12th stereotyped edition, Boston, Mass.: Otis, Broaders, and Company; […], OCLC 78250617, page 311:

     The original charges, however, are made in what is called a day book, where they are written one after another, in the order in which the transactions occur. During the hours of leisure, these charges are copied into another book, […] the account of each man being placed under his name. This book is called the leger. The act of copying from the day book into the leger is called posting.

leger (third-person singular simple present legers, present participle legering, simple past and past participle legered)

1. (transitive, intransitive, Britain, fishing) Alternative form of ledger (“to use (a certain type of bait) in bottom fishing; to engage in bottom fishing”)
   • 1864, “Otter” [pseudonym; H. Jervis Alfred], “Eel, Lamprey and Lampern”, in The Modern Angler, Containing Instructions in the Art of Fly-fishing, Spining and Bottom-fishing, […], London: Alfred & Son, […], OCLC 82855212, part I, page 68:

     Night-lines are made of water-cord, with the hooks about half-a-yard apart, baited with worms, loach, gudgeons, &c.; a brick is fastened to each end of the line to sink it, or a peg at one end and a brick at the other, and laid obliquely across the stream. They are also often taken when Legering for Barbel, […]

   • 1878, “The Fishing Season”, in Once a Week, volume VIII (Fourth Series), London: Published at the offices, 19, Tavistock Street, W.C., OCLC 297249299, page 95, column 1:

     Messrs. E. Frost and Tomkins, at Monkey Island, in two days, caught 80 lbs. weight of chub, dace, and roach with the fly and cheese paste, and in legering a trout of 2¼ lbs.

   • 1997, Paul Gustafson, “Rigs”, in How to Catch Bigger Pike from Rivers, Lochs and Lakes, London: Collins Willow, HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN; republished as How to Catch Big Pike: All the Insight and Technique You Need to Catch Bigger Pike, whatever the Location, London: Robinson, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, 2016, →ISBN, page 160:

     The added advantage of legering a small bait rather than freelining one is that you can tighten up harder to the bait and so spot runs earlier.

   • 1998, Martin James, “Flounder”, in Paul Morgan, editor, Saltwater Flyfishing: Britain and Northern Europe, Machynlleth, Powys: Coch-y-Bonddu Books, published 2006, →ISBN, page 156:

     The flounder spends its life between the tideline and the 25 to 30 fathoms mark, but they are often caught several miles upstream in freshwater rivers by anglers legering worms or gentles.

• regle

• IPA^(key): /ˈleː.ɣər/
• Hyphenation: le‧ger
• Rhymes: -eːɣər

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From Middle Dutch leger, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *legrą.

leger n (plural legers, diminutive legertje n)

1. army, armed forces

   Het leger moet leger! ― The army must become emptier!

2. form (habitation of a hare)
3. (archaic) bed, crib
4. (figuratively) mass, multitude
5. Short for dijkleger.

• Afrikaans: leër

See the etymology of the main entry.

leger

1. Comparative form of leeg

leger

1. first-person singular present indicative of legeren
2. imperative of legeren

• geler, regel

Borrowed from French léger.

• Audio (Austria)

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• Audio

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leger (comparative legerer, superlative am legersten)

1. casual, informal
2. (of clothing) dressed down

• leger in Duden online

• IPA^(key): /leˈɡer/

leger

1. to read

lēger

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of lēgō

leger

1. Alternative form of lygger

leger m

1. indefinite plural of lege

leger

1. present of lege

leger f

1. indefinite plural of lege

From Proto-Germanic *legrą, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-. Cognate with Old Frisian leger, Old Saxon legar, Dutch leger (“bed, camp, army”), Old High German legar (German Lager (“camp”)), Old Norse legr (Danish lejr, Swedish läger (“bed”)), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌲𐍂𐍃 (ligrs). The Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek λέχος (lékhos), Latin lectus (“bed”), Proto-Celtic *leg- (Old Irish lige, Irish luighe), Proto-Slavic *ležati (Russian лежать (ležatʹ)).

• IPA^(key): /ˈlejer/

leġer n

1. the state or action of lying, lying down, or lying ill

   on ðam sixtan dæge his legeres ― on the sixth day of his illness

2. resting-place; couch, bed
3. death-bed, grave

   on gehalgodan legere licgan ― to be buried in a consecrated grave

• English: lair

From Latin legō, legere.

leger

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Vallader) to read

• liger (Sutsilvan, Surmiran)
• ler (Puter)

leger m (feminine singular legra, masculine plural legers, feminine plural legras)

1. (Sursilvan) merry, happy

   Synonym: allegher

• legher (Rumantsch Grischun, Sutsilvan, Surmiran)

leger (comparative legerare, superlative legerast)

1. Alternative form of legär