different between leg vs tail

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English leg, legge, from Old Norse leggr (“leg, calf, bone of the arm or leg, hollow tube, stalk”), from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz, *lagwijaz (“leg, thigh”), from Proto-Indo-European *(?)lak-, *l?k- (“leg; the main muscle of the arm or leg”).

Cognate with Scots leg (“leg”), Icelandic leggur (“leg, limb”), Norwegian Bokmål legg (“leg”), Norwegian Nynorsk legg (“leg”), Swedish Swedish lägg (“leg, shank, shaft”), Danish læg (“leg”), Lombardic lagi (“thigh, shank, leg”), Latin lacertus (“limb, arm”), Persian ???? (leng). Upon borrowing, mostly displaced the native Old English term s?anca (Modern English shank).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /l??/
• (some US dialects) IPA^(key): /le??/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

leg (plural legs)

1. A limb or appendage that an animal uses for support or locomotion.

2. In humans, the lower limb extending from the groin to the ankle.

3. (anatomy) The portion of the lower limb of a human that extends from the knee to the ankle.
4. A part of garment, such as a pair of trousers/pants, that covers a leg.

5. A rod-like protrusion from an inanimate object, supporting it from underneath.

6. (figuratively) Something that supports.

7. A stage of a journey, race etc.

8. (nautical) A distance that a sailing vessel does without changing the sails from one side to the other.
9. (nautical) One side of a multiple-sided (often triangular) course in a sailing race.
10. (sports) A single game or match played in a tournament or other sporting contest.
11. (geometry) One of the two sides of a right triangle that is not the hypotenuse.
12. (geometry) One of the branches of a hyperbola or other curve which extend outward indefinitely.
13. (usually used in plural) The ability of something to persist or succeed over a long period of time.

14. (Britain, slang, archaic) A disreputable sporting character; a blackleg.
15. An extension of a steam boiler downward, in the form of a narrow space between vertical plates, sometimes nearly surrounding the furnace and ash pit, and serving to support the boiler; called also water leg.
16. In a grain elevator, the case containing the lower part of the belt which carries the buckets.
17. (cricket, attributive) Denotes the half of the field on the same side as the batsman's legs; the left side for a right-handed batsman.

    Synonym: on; Antonym: off

18. (telephony) A branch or lateral circuit connecting an instrument with the main line.
19. (electrical) A branch circuit; one phase of a polyphase system.
20. (finance) An underlying instrument of a derivatives strategy.
21. (US, slang, military) An army soldier assigned to a paratrooper unit who has not yet been qualified as a paratrooper.
22. (archaic) A gesture of submission; a bow or curtsey. Chiefly in phrase make a leg.
    • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 74:

      Hickman came in, making his legs, and stroking his cravat and ruffles.

23. (journalism) A column, as a unit of length of text as laid out.
    • 2015, Homer L. Hall, ?Megan Fromm, Aaron Manfull, Student Journalism & Media Literacy (page 266)

      A leg is one column of a story. It has two legs if it is set in two columns and three legs if it is set in three columns. Avoid legs longer than 10 inches and shorter than 1 inch.

Alternative forms

• legge (obsolete)

Synonyms

• (side of a right triangle): cathetus

Derived terms

Translations

See leg/translations § Noun.

See also

Verb

leg (third-person singular simple present legs, present participle legging, simple past and past participle legged)

1. To remove the legs from an animal carcass.
2. To build legs onto a platform or stage for support.
3. To put a series of three or more options strikes into the stock market.
4. To apply force using the leg (as in 'to leg a horse').

Derived terms

• leg it

References

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?d?/
• Homophone: ledge

Noun

leg (plural not attested)

1. Abbreviation of legislature.

2. Abbreviation of legend.

Adjective

leg (not comparable)

1. Abbreviation of legislative.

Anagrams

• ELG, ElG, gel

Aromanian

Alternative forms

• legu

Etymology

From Latin lig?. Compare Romanian lega, leg.

Verb

leg (second-person singular present indicative ledz, third-person singular present indicative leadzi or leadze, second-person plural present indicative ligats, past participle ligatã)

1. I tie, bind.

Related terms

• ligari / ligare
• ligat
• ligãturã
• ligãmintu
• dizleg

See also

• adun
• mpriunedz

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?l?j?]
• Homophone: lej
• Rhymes: -aj

Etymology 1

From Old Norse leikr, from Proto-Germanic *laikaz.

Noun

leg c (singular definite legen, plural indefinite lege)

1. play, game
2. (zoology) spawning (fish)

Inflection

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

leg

1. imperative of lege

Dupaningan Agta

Noun

leg

1. neck; throat

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?x/
• Rhymes: -?x

Verb

leg

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

Anagrams

• gel

German

Alternative forms

• lege

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /le?k/

Verb

leg

1. (colloquial) first-person singular present of legen
2. singular imperative of legen
3. (colloquial) first-person singular subjunctive I of legen
4. (colloquial) third-person singular subjunctive I of legen

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?l??]
• Hyphenation: leg
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

Back-formation from leg- (prefix forming superlative adjectives).

Noun

leg (plural legek)

1. (chiefly in the plural, informal) best, most (record-setting achievement, property or amount)

Declension

Etymology 2

From English leg (“single game or match played in a tournament”).

Noun

leg (plural legek)

1. (darts) leg (single game played in darts)

Declension

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l???/
• Rhymes: -???

Noun

leg n (genitive singular legs, nominative plural leg)

1. uterus

Declension

Derived terms

• leggöng
• legháls
• leghálssýking
• legnám

Lombard

Etymology 1

From legge.

Noun

leg

1. law

Etymology 2

From leggere.

Verb

leg

1. to read

Middle English

Alternative forms

• legge, leggue, leige, lige

Etymology

From Old Norse leggr, from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l??/

Noun

leg (plural legges)

1. leg, limb
2. shank, shin
3. leg (cut of meat)
4. leg armour
5. The stem of a wine glass

Descendants

• English: leg
• Scots: leg

References

• “leg, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-05.

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

leg

1. imperative of lege

Old Norse

Noun

leg n

1. burial place

Declension

Derived terms

• legkaup n (“burial fee”)
• legstaðr m (“burial place”)
• legsteinn m (“tombstone”)

References

• leg in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?k/
• Homophone: lek

Noun

leg

1. genitive plural of lega

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [le?]

Verb

leg

1. first-person singular present indicative of lega
2. first-person singular present subjunctive of lega

Swedish

Adjective

leg

1. certified, authorized; indicating an authorized medical doctor, not a quack. Abbreviation of legitimerad.

Noun

leg n

1. (slang) ID card showing the owner's age; abbreviation of legitimation.

Declension

See also

• lägg

Anagrams

• elg

Torres Strait Creole

Etymology

From English leg.

Noun

leg

1. lower leg, foot

Synonyms

• ngar (western dialect)

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From Old Norse leg.

Noun

leg n (definite leje, dative lejen)

1. afterbirth from calving

Synonyms

• ättföring f
• li n

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: t?l, IPA^(key): /te?l/
• Homophones: tale, tael
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English tail, tayl, teil, from Old English tæ?l (“tail”), from Proto-Germanic *taglaz, *tagl? (“hair, fiber; hair of a tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *do?- (“hair of the tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *de?- (“to tear, fray, shred”). Cognate with Scots tail (“tail”), Dutch teil (“tail, haulm, blade”), Low German Tagel (“twisted scourge, whip of thongs and ropes; end of a rope”), German Zagel (“tail”), dialectal Danish tavl (“hair of the tail”), Swedish tagel (“hair of the tail, horsehair”), Norwegian tagl (“tail”), Icelandic tagl (“tail, horsetail, ponytail”), Gothic ???????????????? (tagl, “hair”). In some senses, apparently by a generalization of the usual opposition between head and tail.

Noun

tail (plural tails)

1. (anatomy) The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to its posterior and near the anus.

2. An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails.
3. The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything.
4. The feathers attached to the pygostyle of a bird.
5. The tail-end of an object, e.g. the rear of an aircraft's fuselage, containing the tailfin.
   • 1862, Ballou's Dollar Monthly Magazine (volume 16, page 83)

     It was soon over, and the unmoved magistrate calmly ordained that Deborah Williams, Elizabeth and Faith Wilson, should be tied to a cart's tail, and thus led through the principal streets of the town, receiving during their progress twenty lashes each, well laid on, upon the naked back.

6. The rear structure of an aircraft, the empennage.
7. (astronomy) The visible stream of dust and gases blown from a comet by the solar wind.
8. The latter part of a time period or event, or (collectively) persons or objects represented in this part.
9. (statistics) The part of a distribution most distant from the mode; as, a long tail.
10. One who surreptitiously follows another.
11. (cricket) The lower order of batsmen in the batting order, usually specialist bowlers.
12. (typography) The lower loop of the letters in the Roman alphabet, as in g, q or y.

    Synonym: descender

13. (chiefly in the plural) The side of a coin not bearing the head; normally the side on which the monetary value of the coin is indicated; the reverse.
14. (mathematics) All the last terms of a sequence, from some term on.

15. (now colloquial, chiefly US) The buttocks or backside.
    • 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:

      By Goddis sydes, syns I her thyder broughte, / She hath gote me more money with her tayle / Than hath some shyppe that into Bordews sayle.
16. (slang) The penis of a person or animal.
17. (slang, uncountable) Sexual intercourse.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:copulation

18. (kayaking) The stern; the back of the kayak.
19. A train or company of attendants; a retinue.
20. (anatomy) The distal tendon of a muscle.
21. (entomology) A filamentous projection on the tornal section of each hind wing of certain butterflies.
22. A downy or feathery appendage of certain achens, formed of the permanent elongated style.
23. (surgery) A portion of an incision, at its beginning or end, which does not go through the whole thickness of the skin, and is more painful than a complete incision; called also tailing.
24. One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times.
25. (nautical) A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything.
26. (music) The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem.
27. (mining) A tailing.
28. (architecture) The bottom or lower portion of a member or part such as a slate or tile.
29. (colloquial, dated) A tailcoat.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• caudal

Verb

tail (third-person singular simple present tails, present participle tailing, simple past and past participle tailed)

1. (transitive) To follow and observe surreptitiously.

   Tail that car!

2. (architecture) To hold by the end; said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; with in or into
3. (nautical) To swing with the stern in a certain direction; said of a vessel at anchor.

   This vessel tails downstream.

4. To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded.

   • Nevertheless his bond of two thousand pounds, wherewith he was tailed, continued uncancelled.

5. To pull or draw by the tail.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Anglo-Norman, probably from a shortened form of entail.

Adjective

tail

1. (law) Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed.

   estate tail

Noun

tail

1. (law) Limitation of inheritance to certain heirs.

   tail male — limitation to male heirs

   in tail — subject to such a limitation

Related terms

• entail

References

Anagrams

• ATLI, Ital, Ital., LIAT, LITA, Lita, TILA, Ta-li, Tila, alit, alti, ital, ital., lait, tali

Middle English

Noun

tail

1. Alternative form of tayl

Welsh

Noun

tail m (plural teiliau)

1. shit, dung

Derived terms

• maer biswail