Etymology
The archaic French word lacre "a kind of sealing wax", from Portuguese lacre, unexplained variant of lacca "resinous substance", from Arabic lakk, from Persian lak, the verb lac meaning "to cover or coat with laqueur". The root of the word is the Sanskrit word laksha (लक्ष) meaning "one hundred thousand", which was used for both the Lac insect (because of their enormous number) and the scarlet resinous secretion it produces that was used as wood finish in ancient India and neighbouring areas. Lac resin was once imported in sizeable quantity into Europe from India along with Eastern woods. The modern Hindi-Urdu word lakh (लाख, لاکھ), meaning "hundred thousand," is also derived from the same Sanskrit root-word.
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Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)