the twelfth letter of the modern and the eleventh of the ancient Roman alphabet, represents historically the Gr. lambda and ultimately the Semitic lamed. The earliest known Semitic forms of the character are [char.] and [char.]; both these occur in early Greek inscriptions; the latter was adopted from the Greek into the Latin alphabet, and is the ancestor of the modern Roman forms, but in Greece itself was superseded by the inverted form [char.], which eventually became Λ.
The sound normally expressed by the letter is the ‘point-side’ consonant, i.e., a sound produced by the emission of breath at the sides, or one side, of the oral passage when it is partially closed by contact or the point of the tongue with the gums or palate.
In phonetic treatises l is used as a general name for consonants produced by lateral emission of breath, whether the stoppage is produced (as above) by the ‘point,’ or by some other part of the tongue; thus we speak of a ‘guttural l’ and a palatal l’ as occurring in various foreign languages.
The ‘point-side’ consonant admits of considerable diversity in mode of articulation and consequently in acoustic quality. The Eng. l differs from that of Fr. and Ger. in being uttered with the ‘front’ of the tongue more concave; hence its sound is ‘duller’ or ‘thicker.’ Its precise place of articulation varies according to the nature of the adjacent sounds. In Eng. it is normally voiced; an unvoiced l occurring only as a ‘glide’ connecting the voiced l with a preceding or following unvoiced consonant. Like r and the nasals, l may be used as a sonant or vowel (in the phonetic notation of this Dictionary indicated by ’l); but this occurs only in unstressed syllables, as in little (li·t’l), buckled (bv’·’ld).
The mod. Eng. l represents not only the OE. l, but the OE. hl (early ME. lh) and wl.
In certain combinations an original l has regularly become silent, after having modified the sound of the preceding vowel. In most of these cases the l is still written, and serves to indicate the pronunciation of the preceding vowel. The following combinations of letters (when occurring in the same syllable, or in derivatives of words in which they were tautosyllabic) may be regarded as compound phonetic symbols of almost unvarying value: alf (ãr), alve (ãv), alm (ãm), alk, aulk (ǭk), aulm, (ǭm), olk. In many dialects, esp. in Sc., the instances in which an original l regularly disappears are much more numerous than in standard Eng.; cf. Sc. awfu’, fou, ca’, etc.; in Sc. the regular representative of ol(l is ow, as in fowk, pow.
I. 1. Illustrations of the literary use of the letter.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., iii. (Z.), 6. Semivocales syndon seofan: f, l, m, n, r, s, x.
1530. Palsgr., 32. The soundyng of this consonant L. Ibid., 46. So often as l cometh before h havyng his aspiracion … it is the errour of the printers whiche knowe nat their owne tonge.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. ii. 60. If Sore be sore, then ell to Sore, makes fiftie sores O sorell: Of one sore I an hundred make by adding but one more L.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 24/1. Wordes in the which manye R. R. R. and L. L. L. come.
15[?]. Gude & Godl. B., Calendar (S. T. S.). Where ye shal finde a Capital L there begine for the finding of Lent.
1727–52. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. L, The French louis d’ors have a cross on them consisting of eight L’s interwoven, and disposed in form of a cross.
1892. Daily News, 5 Sept., 5/2. There are pedantic persons who would bid us pronounce the ‘l’ in ‘salmon.’
1897. Spectator, 2 Jan., 13/1. For the sake of Learning, with a capital ‘L.’
2. An object shaped like the letter L. (Also written ell.) a. An extension of a building at right angles to the main block, giving the whole the shape of the letter L.
1879. Webster, Suppl. s.v., L (of a house).
1883. G. M. White, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 358–9. An L of the house where she was born is still standing.
b. A pipe-joint connecting two pipes at right angles; an elbow-joint (Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl., 1884).
3. attrib. and Comb., as L-shaped adj.; L desk, a reading-desk of which the ground-plan is of the form of the letter L.
1874. Micklethwaite, Mod. Par. Churches, ix. 57. That glorious compromise called an L desk.
1882. E. R. Russell, in Macm. Mag., XLVI. 332/2. It is … an L-shaped room, with the front of the stage for its base.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 347. An L-shaped pad.
II. Symbolical uses.
4. Used like the other letters of the alphabet to denote serial order; applied e.g., to the twelfth (or more usually the eleventh, either I or J being often omitted) group or section in classification, the eleventh sheet of a book or quire of a MS., etc.
1850. Forshall & Madden, Wyclif’s Bible, Pref. xxxi. [Manuscripts] E, L, and P frequently agree together in differing from the other copies.
1899. Standard, 16 Feb., 5/3. Colonel Smith, with companies L, D, and H of the Californian Volunteers, proceeded to clear out the enemy from the front.
1899. Sir A. West, Recoll., I. iv. 104. He had carefully put it [his umbrella] away under the letter ‘L.’
5. In Cryst., h, k, l are used to denote the quantities that determine the position of a plane.
1868. Dana, Min., Introd. p. xxviii.
1895. Story-Maskelyne, Crystallogr., ii. 19.
6. The Roman numeral symbol for Fifty.
As in the case of the other Roman numeral symbols, this was originally not the letter, but was identified with it owing to coincidence of form. In the ancient Roman notation L (with a stroke above) represented 50,000.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Poge, iv. xl or l crownes.
III. 7. Abbreviations.
L. = various proper names as Lionel, Lucy, etc. L. = † Lord, Lordship (pl. LL.); † lawful (money); in Bot., Linnæus; Latin; in Stage directions, left; in abbreviations of degrees, Licentiate, as L. D. S. = Licentiate of Dental Surgery; (Chem.) Lithium. L or l [L. libra] = pound of money († formerly also in weight, now lb.), now often repr. by the conventional sign £; e.g., 100l. or £100; see also L. S. D. The three L’s (see quot. 1867). l = in ship’s log-book, lightning; in references, line, as bk. 4, l. 8; in solmization, la. l. b. w. (Cricket), leg before wicket; l.c. (Printing), lower case. L. C. M. (Arith.), least common multiple. L. M. (Prosody), long metre. See also LL., LXX.
1527. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 117. My lord, we your seruandis … hes ressauit your l. guid mynd … touching your l. brig of Dee.
1554. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 218. It was … ordered by the L. L. Ibid. (1577), 389. Appointed by order from their LLs.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), A b. If your L. vouchsafe to receive it.
1637. Heylyn, Answ. Burton, 61. Your dealing with my LL. the Bishops.
1684. Acts Tonnage & Poundage, 86. Alabaster the Load … 02l. 00s. 00d.
1684. R. Waller, Ess. Nat. Exper., 103. A mass of 500l. of Ice.
1701. Dr. Wallis, in Collect. (O. H. S.), I. 329. An allowance of 20 £ a year.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1724), I. 591. An 100000 l. was given.
1774. Connect. Col. Rec. (1887), XIV. 299. To pay said sum of £54 14 0, L. money.
1795. in Lillywhite, Cricket Scores (1862), I. 100. Hon. J. Tufton, lbw, b Wells … 3.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, L. A. C., an abbreviation used by the dispensing surgeon or chemist, implying that he is a ‘licentiate of the Apothecaries Company.’
1865. Derby Mercury, 26 April. A … dividend of 1s. in the £.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., L. The three L’s were formerly vaunted by seamen who despised the use of nautical astronomy; viz. lead, latitude, and look-out…. Dr. or Captain Halley added the fourth L—the greatly-desired longitude.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 127. Cratægus, L. Hawthorn, Whitethorn.
1885. Law Jrnl., 17 Jan., 38/2. A salary of 4l. a week.
1891. W. G. Grace, Cricket, i. in Out-door Games, 17. You should all know how difficult it is to get any one l.b.w. when [etc.].
