leathern

English

Etymology

From Middle English letheren, from Old English liþren, from Proto-Germanic *liþrīnaz (“of leather, leathern”), equivalent to leather +‎ -en. Cognate with Scots letherin, lethrin, West Frisian learen, Dutch lederen, leren (“leathern”), German ledern (“leathern”).

Adjective

leathern (not comparable)

1. (dated) Made of leather.

   Synonym: (more current) leather

   • 1806 [c. 20 BCE], Robert Arrol, transl., Cornelii Neoptis Vitæ Excellentium Imperatorum, translation of De viris illustribus by Cornelius Nepos:

     For the doing of this matter, he ordered a great many leathern bottles and sacks to be got together; […]

   • 1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “Christ’s Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago”, in Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London Magazine, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 28:

     He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter of a penny loaf—our crug—moistened with attenuated small beer, in wooden piggins, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it was poured from.

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘Those were the Real Conquests’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 263:

     Still more pleased was he when, inverting a leathern pouch over the end of the reed, and so filling it with the gas, he was able to send it soaring up into the air.

   • 1913 December – 1914 March, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “With the Yellow Men”, in The Warlord of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published September 1919, →OCLC, page 164:

     Except for his leathern harness, covered thick with jewels and metal, […]

Derived terms

• leathern conveniency