How do you pronounce lask?

The recorded pronunciation is /læsk/.

Where does lask come from?

It is traced to Middle English.

lask

/læsk/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.61 in modern English

Syllables: lask
IPA: /læsk/

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To have loose bowels; to suffer from diarrhoea.

Intransitive verb; Obsolete

adj

Lax, weak; specifically of the bowels: affected by diarrhoea; loose.

Obsolete

noun

Originally of both persons and animals, now only of animals: looseness of the bowels; diarrhoea; (countable) a bout of this ailment.

Uncountable

Example Sentences

"Pannick ſtoppeth the laske as Millet doth, being boiled (as Plinie reporteth) in Goates milk and drunke twiſe in a day."
"A graue & learned Miniſter, and an ordinary Preacher at Alcmar in Holland, was one day (as hee was walking in the fields for his recreation) ſuddenly taken with a laske or looſeneſſe, and therevpon compelled to retire to the next ditch; but being ſurpriſed at vnawares, by ſome Gentlewomen of his Pariſh wandering that way; was ſo abaſhed, that hee did neuer after ſhew his head in publike, or come into the Pulpit, but pined away with melancholy: […]"
"The Emulſion or Decoction of the Seed ſtaieth Lasks and continual Fluxes, eaſeth the Chollick, and allayeth the troubleſom Humors in the Bowels, […]"

Etymology

From Middle English lasken (“to diminish, weaken (the blood or other body fluids, body tissues, etc.); to thin (the blood through bloodletting); to alleviate (pain, sickness); to grow weak; to shorten (one’s life)”) [and other forms], from Old Northern French *lasquer, Old French lascher, laschier (“to let go of, release; to loosen, relax”) (modern French lâcher (“to let go of, release; to loosen”)), from Vulgar Latin *lascāre, *lassicāre, from Latin *laxicāre, the frequentative of Latin laxāre, the present active infinitive of laxō (“to relax, weaken; to release, undo; to make wide, open”), from laxus (“free, loose, slack; roomy, spacious, wide”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leg-, *(s)leh₁g- (“faint; weak”).

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: *(s)leg-, lasken, *lasquer, lascher, *lascāre, *laxicāre

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /læsk/
British English: /lɑːsk/

Usage

Inflected Forms

lasks (present, singular) lasking (participle, present) lasked (participle, past) lasked (past) laske (alternative) more lask (comparative) most lask (superlative) lasks (plural)

Rhymes With

ask task mask flask basque cask bask trask unmask pask pasch pasque