Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

liege

/liːd͡ʒ/ noun, adjective, proper noun

Forms lieges

  1. noun A free and independent person; specifically, a lord paramount; a sovereign.
  2. noun (in full liege lord) A king or lord.
  3. noun The subject of a sovereign or lord; a liegeman.
  4. adjective Sovereign; independent; having authority or right to allegiance. “a liege lord”
  5. adjective Serving an independent sovereign or master; bound by a feudal tenure; obliged to be faithful and loyal to a superior, such as a vassal to his lord; faithful. “a liege man; a liege subject”
  6. adjective (obsolete, law) Full; perfect; complete; pure.
  7. proper noun The largest city and provincial capital of Liège, Wallonia, Belgium
  8. proper noun A province of Wallonia, Belgium
  9. proper noun An arrondissement of Liège, Wallonia, Belgium

Synonyms

vassal liegeman liege subject feudatory liege lord Luik

Etymology

From Middle English liege, lege, lige, from Anglo-Norman lige, from Old French liege (“liege, free”), from Middle High German ledic, ledec (“free, empty, vacant”) (Modern German ledig (“unmarried”)) from Proto-Germanic *liþugaz (“flexible, free, unoccupied”).
Akin to Old Frisian leþeg, leþoch (“free”), Old English liþiġ (“flexible”), Old Norse liðugr (“free, unhindered”), Old Saxon lethig (“idle”), Low German leddig (“empty”), Middle Dutch ledich (“idle, unemployed”) (Dutch ledig (“empty”) and leeg (“empty”)), Middle English lethi (“unoccupied, at leisure”).
An alternate etymology traces the Old French word to Late Latin laeticus (“of or relating to a semifree colonist in Gaul”), from Latin laetus (“a semi-free colonist”), from Gothic *𐌻𐌴𐍄𐍃 (*lēts) (attested in derivatives such as 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌻𐌴𐍄𐍃 (fralēts)), from Proto-Germanic *lētaz (“freeman; bondsman, serf”), from *lētaną (“to let; free; release”).

From French Liège, q.v.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Sovereign; independent; having authority or right to allegiance; as, a liege lord. Chaucer.
  2. adjective serving an independent sovereign or master; bound by a feudal tenure; obliged to be faithful and loyal to a superior, as a vassal to his lord; faithful; loyal; as, a liege man; a liege subject.
  3. noun A free and independent person; specif., a lord paramount; a sovereign. Mrs. Browning.
  4. noun The subject of a sovereign or lord; a liegeman.

Etymology [OE. lige, lege, F. lige, LL. ligius, legius, liege, unlimited, complete, prob. of German origin; cf. G. ledig free from bonds and obstacles, MHG. ledec, ledic, lidic, freed, loosed, and Charta Ottonis de Benthem, ann. ligius homo quod Teutonicè dicitur ledigman," i. e., uni soli homagio obligatus, free from all obligations to others; influenced by L.ligare to bind. G. ledig perh. orig. meant, free to go where one pleases, and is perh. akin to E.lead to conduct. Cf. Lead to guide.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “liege”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details