different between lathi vs lath

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Hindi ???? (l??h?).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /l??ti?/

Noun

lathi (countable and uncountable, plural lathis)

1. (India, countable) A heavy stick or club, usually used by policemen.
   • 1973, JG Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur:

     The iron-bound bamboo staves, known as lâtees, with which most disputes among rival zemindars were traditionally settled.

   • 2004, Khushwant Singh, Burial at Sea, Penguin 2014, p. 131:

     A phalanx of policemen armed with lathis faced a mob of mill workers squatting on the road.

   • 2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin 2015, p. 94:

     Nearby, held back by a line of lathi-carrying peons, stood the farmers whose vessels were being weighed […].

2. (uncountable) A martial art based on stick fighting originally practiced in India.

   Lathi shares its basic principles with other martial arts.

Derived terms

• lathicharge

References

• “lathi”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000

Anagrams

• Lahti, Litha, laith, tahil, tahli, thali, thial

English

Alternative forms

• lat, latt (Scotland)

Etymology

From Middle English laththe, laþþe, earlier lathe, laþe, altered from Old English lætt (“lath”), from Proto-Germanic *latt?, *laþþ? (compare Dutch lat, German Latte) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lat- (compare Welsh llath (“rod, wand, yard”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /læ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?
• Rhymes: -???

Noun

lath (plural laths)

1. A thin, narrow strip, fastened to the rafters, studs, or floor beams of a building, for the purpose of supporting a covering of tiles, plastering, etc.
   • 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:

     The rubble waits him, sloping up to broken rear walls in a clogging, an openwork of laths pointlessly chevroning-flooring, furniture, glass, chunks of plaster, long tatters of wallpaper, split and shattered joists […].

   • 1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage 2015, p. 21:

     Lanna says about wishing she was bigger in the chest and I goes that I had nothing to beat there and I was thin as a lat.

   Synonym: lath strap

Holonyms

• lattice

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Verb

lath (third-person singular simple present laths, present participle lathing, simple past and past participle lathed)

1. to cover or line with laths

Anagrams

• halt, thal