Lip: The English word 'lip' and the Latin… | etymologist.ai
lip
/lɪp/·noun·before 900 CE·Established
Origin
From OldEnglish 'lippa,' from PIE *leb- (to hang loosely) — the lips named as the drooping flesh around the mouth.
Definition
Either of the two fleshy parts forming the edges of the mouth opening.
The Full Story
Proto-Indo-Europeanbefore 900 CEwell-attested
From OldEnglish lippa (lip), from Proto-Germanic *lepjon (lip), from PIE *leb- or *lab- (to hang loosely, to droop, to lick). The lips were named for being the hanging, drooping flesh at the edge of the mouth — something loose and pendulous rather than taut. The samePIErootmay
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TheEnglish word 'lip' and the Latin 'labium' (lip) — source of 'labial' in phonetics — may share a distant PIE ancestor, but arrived in English by completely different routes. 'Lip' is nativeGermanic; 'labial' is a Latinborrowing. The phonetics term 'labial' (soundsmade with the lips, like /b/, /p/, /m/) uses the Latin form because scientific terminology traditionally preferred
connect to Latin labium (lip) and labrum (lip, rim), though some linguists derive those from a separate but acoustically similar root *leh2b-. The root also