Re: [norse_course] Lex (loi, ley) and lag, lög, law?

> Could someone tell me if the Latin ’lex’ was a cognate of the
> words 'lag, law, lög' etc. in the Germanic languages? Or is it a loan-
> word?

I think the English 'law' is a loan-word from Old Norse.
The Latin 'lex' is supposed to be related to 'legere',
"to pick up".

> I know that the English ‘law’ is a loan-word from the Old Norse. I was
> trying to figure out what could be the German cognate of this word, but
> it seems to me there isn’t such a one. Law is either ‘Recht’ or ‘Gesetz’
> in German (the latter has the Old English cognate ‘gesetnys’).

I think 'lög' is related to 'leggja' and ultimately
means something like "that which is laid down". That's
something close to the meaning of 'Gesetz' isn't it?

Apparently there's an Old Saxon word 'gilagu' meaning
"decisions, fate". Compare with Old Norse 'ørlög'.

Kveðja,
Haukur