leek

Synonyms

broadleaf wild leek the Cambrian symbol garden leek scallion Allium porrum

Etymology

From Middle English leek, leeke, lek, leke, leyke, from Old English lēac, lēc (“allium; garlic or leek”), from Proto-West Germanic *lauk, from Proto-Germanic *laukaz (“leek”), from *leukaną, *lūkaną (“to close, shut”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend”).
Cognate with Alemannic German Làuich (“leek”), Dutch look (“leek”), Plautdietsch Luak (“leek”), German Lauch (“leek”), Danish løg (“onion”), Faroese leykur (“onion”), Icelandic laukur (“garlic, leek, onion”), Norwegian Bokmål løk (“onion”), Norwegian Nynorsk lauk, løk (“onion”), Swedish lök (“onion”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian лук (luk, “onion”), Polabian lauk (“garlic”), Serbo-Croatian лу̏к, lȕk (“onion; garlic”), Estonian lauk (“allium”), Finnish and Ingrian laukka (“onion”), Livonian lōka (“onion”), Livvi laukku (“onion”), Ludian lauk (“leek; onion”); also Gaulish lunget (“to load”), Irish fulaing (“to bear; to support; to sustain; to mountain”), Scottish Gaelic fuiling, fulaing (“to suffer; to stand; to allow; to bear”), Welsh gollwng (“to drop, release; to leak; to dissolve”), Latin luxus (“dislocated”), Ancient Greek λύγος (lúgos, “chaste tree; flexible twig, withe”), Albanian vlug (“peak”), Sanskrit रुग्ण (rugṇa, “bent, broken, checked; diseased, infirm, sick”). See garlic.

Perhaps of pre-Anglo-Saxon (non-Old English) origin and instead from Celtic; compare Welsh llech and Irish leac (“stone”), both from Proto-Celtic *ɸlikkā.
Recorded as Lec in 1086 (DB).