lene

See also: Appendix:Variations of "lene"

English

Etymology

Anglicisation of Latin lēnis. Doublet of lenis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈliːn/
• Homophone: lean

Noun

lene (plural lenes)

1. (phonetics) The smooth breathing (spiritus lenis).
2. (phonetics) A voiceless, or unaspirated, stopped consonant, such as Greek pi, kappa, or tau.
   • 1861, William Edward Jelf, Accidence:

     When in a crasis, a lene consonant […] is combined with an aspirated vowel, the lene is always changed (except in the Ionic dialect) into the corresponding aspirate […]

Derived terms

• dagesh lene

Anagrams

• Leen, Neel, elne

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːnə

Verb

lene

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of lenen

Anagrams

• leen

Galician

Etymology

From Latin lēnis, in substitution of the inherited form len (attested 13th century) which is preserved in the adverbial phrase ao len (“out in the open”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛne̝/

Adjective

1. (literary) mild, gentle, soft

   Synonyms: maino, suave

   • c. 1300, R. Martínez López, editor, General Estoria. Versión gallega del siglo XIV, Oviedo: Publicacións de Archivum, page 280:

     Madre, sabes tu que Esau, meu yrmão he veloso et eu nõ, mays som lem, et se meu padre me apalpar et souber que sóóm eu, medo ey que coyde queo quis [excarnesçer], et em lugar de bendiçõ ey medo que me maldiga.

     Mother, you know that Esau, my brother, is hairy, but not me, I'm hairless; and if my father would touch me and find that it's me, I fear that he would think that I was mocking him, and instead of his blessing I would have his curse

References

• “lem” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “lene”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “lene”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “lene”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Italian

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin lēnis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛ.ne/
• Rhymes: -ɛne
• Hyphenation: lè‧ne

Adjective

lene (plural leni) (literary)

1. mild, gentle, soft

   Synonyms: delicato, lieve, mite, soave

   Antonyms: aspro, brusco, forte, greve, pesante

2. (poetic) smooth
3. (phonetics) lenis

Derived terms

• lenemente

Related terms

• lenità

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈle.ne/, /ˈlɛ.ne/
• Rhymes: -ene, -ɛne
• Hyphenation: lé‧ne, lè‧ne

Noun

lene f pl

1. plural of lena

References

• lene in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Etymology 1

From lēnis.

Adverb

lēne (comparative lēnius, superlative lēnissimē)

1. softly, gently

   Synonym: lēniter

Related terms

• lēnīmen
• lēnīmentum
• lēniō
• lēnis
• lēnitās
• lēniter
• lēnitūdō

 

Etymology 2

Adjective

lēne

1. nominative/vocative/accusative singular neuter of lēnis

References

• “lene”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lene”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lene in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From German lehnen.

Verb

lene (imperative len, present tense lener, passive lenes, simple past lenet or lente, past participle lenet or lent, present participle lenende)

1. to lean

Derived terms

• armlene (of noun)

References

• “lene” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• lena

Etymology

From German lehnen.

Verb

lene

1. to lean

Derived terms

• armlene (of noun)

References

• “lene” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin lēnis. (The expected native form would be *lem from Old Galician-Portuguese lẽe.)

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈlẽ.ni/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈlẽ.ni/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈle.ne/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈlɛ.nɨ/

• Hyphenation: le‧ne

Adjective

lene m or f (plural lenes)

1. smooth, mild, gentle, soft

   Synonyms: brando, suave

Related terms

• leniente
• leniência

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic лѣнь (lěnĭ), from Proto-Slavic *lěnь. Compare Serbo-Croatian lijénōst, Russian лень (lenʹ), Polish leń. Cf also Aromanian leani.

Noun

lene f (uncountable)

1. laziness, sloth, idleness, indolence

   Synonyms: indolență, trândăvie, lâncezeală, delăsare

Declension

declension of lene (singular only)

	singular
f gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(o) lene	lenea
genitive/dative	(unei) lene	lenei
vocative	lene, leneo

Derived terms

• alene
• leneș

 

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlene/ [ˈle.ne]
• Rhymes: -ene
• Syllabification: le‧ne

Adjective

lene m or f (masculine and feminine plural lenes)

1. (obsolete) soft
2. (obsolete) sweet
3. (obsolete) light

Further reading

• “lene”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28

Swedish

Adjective

lene

1. definite natural masculine singular of len

Anagrams

• elen