leek

English

The vegetable leek

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old English lēac (“a garden herb, leek, onion, garlic”), from Proto-Germanic *laukan (“leek, onion”) *laukaz, from Proto-Indo-European *leug- (“to bend”). Cognate with Dutch look (“garlic, leek”), Low German look, Look, German Lauch (“leek, allium”), Danish løg, Swedish lök (“onion”), Icelandic laukur (“onion, leek, garlic”). See garlic.

Pronunciation

• enPR: lēk, IPA: /liːk/, X-SAMPA: /li:k/
• Rhymes: -iːk
• Homophone: leak

Noun

leek (plural leeks)

1. The vegetable Allium ampeloprasum variety porrum, of the lily family, having edible leaves and an onion-like bulb but with a milder flavour than the onion.

Synonyms

• scallion (US, Scotland)

Translations

vegetable

• Albanian: preshi (sq)
• Arabic: كراث (ar) (kurrāṯ)

  Egyptian Arabic: كرات (kurāt) m pl

• Basque: porru (eu)
• Bulgarian: праз (bg) (praz) m 
• Catalan: porro (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 韭蔥 (cmn), 韭葱 (cmn) (jiǔcōng), 韭菜 (cmn) (jiǔcài)

• Czech: pórek (cs) m, pór zahradní (cs)
• Danish: porre (da)
• Dutch: prei (nl) m, porrei (nl) m
• Esperanto: poreo (eo)
• Ewe: agumetaku n
• Faroese: purra (fo) f
• Finnish: purjo (fi), purjosipuli (fi)
• French: poireau (fr) m, porrée (fr) f, porreau (fr) m, poirée (fr) f, poirette (fr) f, asperge du pauvre (fr)
• German: Porree (de) m, Lauch (de) m
• Greek: πράσο (el) (práso) n 
• Haitian Creole: powo
• Hebrew: כרישה (he)
• Hungarian: póréhagyma (hu)
• Icelandic: blaðlaukur (is) m
• Ido: porelo
• Irish: cainneann (ga) f
• Italian: porro (it) m
• Japanese: 葱 (ja) (ねぎ, negi)

• Khmer: ខ្ទឹមស្លឹក (km) (ktɨm slǝk), ស្លឹកខ្ទឹម (km) (slǝk ktɨm)
• Korean: 파 (ko) (pa)
• Latin: porrum (la) n
• Luxembourgish: Porrett (lb) f
• Macedonian: праз (mk) (praz) m
• Maltese: kurrata f
• Norwegian: purre (no), purreløk (no)
• Ojibwe: zhigaagawanzh
• Old English: lēac (ang) n
• Papiamentu: siboyo largu
• Polish: por (pl) m
• Portuguese: porro (pt) m, alho-porro (pt) m, alho-poró (pt) m (Brazil)
• Romanian: praz (ro)
• Russian: лук-порей (ru) (luk-poréj) m , порей (ru) (poréj) m 
• Scottish Gaelic: creamh-gàrraidh (gd) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: празилук (sh) m, праса (sh) f

  Roman: praziluk (sh) m, prasa (sh) f

• Slovene: por (sl) m, pôr (sl)
• Spanish: puerro (es) m, porro (es) m, poro (es) m
• Swedish: purjolök (sv) c
• Thai: กระเทียมต้น (th) (grà tiam dtôn)
• Turkish: pırasa (tr)
• Urdu: کراث (ur) (kurrās)
• Vietnamese: tỏi tây (vi)
• Walloon: porete (wa) f, porea (wa) m, poret (wa) m
• Welsh: cenhinen (cy) f

See also

• garlic

External links

• Leek on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Allium ampeloprasum on Wikispecies. Wikispecies: Allium ampeloprasum

Anagrams

• keel

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eːk
• IPA: /lek/

  • Audio

    (file)

Etymology 1

From Latin lāicus (“layman, laic”), from Ancient Greek λαϊκός (laikos, “of the people”), from λαός (laos, “the people”).

Noun

leek m (plural leken, diminutive leekje)

1. layman, non-clergyman
2. layman, non-expert, amateur

Derived terms

• lekenapostolaat
• lekenpersoneel
• lekenrechter
• lekenstand

Antonyms

• clericus, geestelijke m
• deskundige m, expert m; beroeps, professional

Adjective

leek (comparative leker, superlative leekst)

1. (obsolete) lay, worldly, secular, profane

Declension

Declension of leek

		positive	comparative	superlative
				attributive	predicative/adverbial
predicative/adverbial		leek	leker
neuter singular	indefinite	leek	leker
	definite	leke	lekere	leekste	leekst, leekste
common singular		leke	lekere	leekste	leekste
plural		leke	lekere	leekste	leekste
partitive		leeks	lekers

Etymology 2

Verb

leek

1. singular past indicative of lijken

Etymology 3

Germanic, cognate with lek, lekken and English (to/a) leak.

Verb

leek

1. first-person singular present indicative of leken
2. imperative of leken

Noun

leek m (plural leken, diminutive leekje)

1. leak(ing)
2. drop

Synonyms

• (leak) lek n, lekkage
• (drop) druppel

Etymology 4

Cognate with laak, Latin lacus, English lake.

Noun

leek ? (plural leken, diminutive leekje)

1. small body of water, like a pool; gave rise to place names

Etymology 5

Unknown; local dialect in the Dutch region Betuwe.

Noun

leek ? (plural leken, diminutive leekje)

1. (botany) the plant Rumex crispus
2. (by extension) related plants of that genus: sorrel, dock

Derived terms

• koeleek

Anagrams

• keel, leke

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Estonian

Noun

leek (genitive leegi, partitive leeki)

1. blaze, flame, fire

Declension

This Estonian noun needs an inflection-table template.

Derived terms

• leegiheitja