leaden

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English leden, leaden, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English lēaden (“leaden, of lead”), equivalent to lead +‎ -en. Cognate with West Frisian leaden (“leaden”), Dutch loden (“leaden”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛdən/
• Rhymes: -ɛdən

Adjective

leaden (comparative more leaden, superlative most leaden)

1. (dated) Made of lead.
2. Pertaining to or resembling lead; grey, heavy, sluggish.
   • 1819, John Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza 3, page 109:

     Where but to think is to be full of sorrow / And leaden-eyed despairs, / Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, / Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

   • 1818-1819, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Julian and Maddalo

     [...] if man be
     The passive thing you say, I should not see
     Much harm in the religions and old saws
     (Tho' I may never own such leaden laws)
     Which break a teachless nature to the yoke.

3. Dull; darkened with overcast.

   the sky was leaden and thick

   • 1999: Stardust, Neil Gaiman, page 31 (2001 Perennial paperback edition)

     "It was at the end of February..., when the world was cold..., when icy rains fell from the leaden skies in continual drizzling showers."

Translations

made of lead

• Bulgarian: оловен (oloven)
• Czech: olověný (cs) m
• Dutch: loden (nl)
• Finnish: lyijyinen (fi)
• German: bleiern (de)
• Italian: plumbeo (it) m
• Latin: plumbeus
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: plúmbeo (pt)
• Russian: свинцовый (ru) (svincovyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: luaidheach
• Spanish: plúmbeo (es), plomizo (es)
• Yiddish: בלײַען (blayen)

pertaining to or resembling lead

• Bulgarian: оловносив (olovnosiv), оловно сив (olovno siv)
• Czech: olověný (cs) m
• Finnish: lyijyinen (fi)
• Latin: plumbeus, plumbārius
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: plúmbeo (pt), plúmbico
• Scottish Gaelic: luaidheach
• Spanish: plúmbeo (es), plomizo (es)

dull

• Finnish: lyijynharmaa
• Hungarian: ólomszürke (hu)
• Italian: plumbeo (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: plúmbeo (pt)
• Spanish: cubierto (es), nublado (es)

Verb

leaden (third-person singular simple present leadens, present participle leadening, simple past and past participle leadened)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To make or become dull or overcast.

Anagrams

• Delena, andele, aneled, leaned, nealed

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Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English lǣdan, from Proto-Germanic *laidijaną.

Verb

leaden

1. Alternative form of leden

References

• “lēden (v.(1))”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-25.

Etymology 2

From Old English lēaden; equivalent to led +‎ -en.

Adjective

leaden

1. Alternative form of leden

References

• “leden, (adj.)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 28 April 2018.

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Old English

Etymology

From lēad +‎ -en.

Adjective

lēaden

1. made of lead; leaden

Declension

Declension of lēaden — Strong

Singular	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	lēaden	lēadenu, lēadnu, lēadeno, lēadno	lēaden
Accusative	lēadenne	lēadene, lēadne	lēaden
Genitive	lēadenes, lēadnes	lēadenre	lēadenes, lēadnes
Dative	lēadenum, lēadnum	lēadenre	lēadenum, lēadnum
Instrumental	lēadene, lēadne	lēadenre	lēadene, lēadne
Plural	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	lēadene, lēadne	lēadena, lēadna, lēadene, lēadne	lēadenu, lēadnu, lēadeno, lēadno
Accusative	lēadene, lēadne	lēadena, lēadna, lēadene, lēadne	lēadenu, lēadnu, lēadeno, lēadno
Genitive	lēadenra	lēadenra	lēadenra
Dative	lēadenum, lēadnum	lēadenum, lēadnum	lēadenum, lēadnum
Instrumental	lēadenum, lēadnum	lēadenum, lēadnum	lēadenum, lēadnum

Declension of lēaden — Weak

Singular	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	lēadena, lēadna	lēadene, lēadne	lēadene, lēadne
Accusative	lēadenan, lēadnan	lēadenan, lēadnan	lēadene, lēadne
Genitive	lēadenan, lēadnan	lēadenan, lēadnan	lēadenan, lēadnan
Dative	lēadenan, lēadnan	lēadenan, lēadnan	lēadenan, lēadnan
Instrumental	lēadenan, lēadnan	lēadenan, lēadnan	lēadenan, lēadnan
Plural	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	lēadenan, lēadnan	lēadenan, lēadnan	lēadenan, lēadnan
Accusative	lēadenan, lēadnan	lēadenan, lēadnan	lēadenan, lēadnan
Genitive	lēadenra, lēadenena, lēadnena	lēadenra, lēadenena, lēadnena	lēadenra, lēadenena, lēadnena
Dative	lēadenum, lēadnum	lēadenum, lēadnum	lēadenum, lēadnum
Instrumental	lēadenum, lēadnum	lēadenum, lēadnum	lēadenum, lēadnum

Descendants

• Middle English: leden, leaden
  • English: leaden
  • Scots: ledin, leidin

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “lēaden”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[1], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.