lithe
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /laɪð/
other: /laɪθ/
other: /lɪθ/
rhymes: -aɪð
Forms: form: lither
form: lithest
Etymology: From Middle English lithe, from Old English līþe (“gentle, mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *linþ(ī), from Proto-Germanic *linþaz, from Proto-Indo-European *lentos.
Akin to Saterland Frisian lied (“thin, skinny, gaunt”), Danish, Dutch, and archaic German lind (“mild”). Some sources also list Latin lenis (“soft”) and/or Latin lentus (“supple”) as possible cognates.
Senses: examples: text: lithe weather
synonyms: clement
gentle
mellow
glosses: Mild; calm.
examples: text: lithe body
text: The noise of their battle with Numa had drawn an excited horde of savages from the nearby village, and a moment after the lion’s death the two men were surrounded by lithe, ebon warriors, gesticulating and jabbering—a thousand questions that drowned each ventured reply.
ref: 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 125:
text: She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had expected to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven, burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.
ref: 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 2:
text: The coaches are grim, tan, lithe-looking women, clearly twirlers once, on the far side of their glory now and very serious-looking, each with a clipboard and whistle.
ref: 1997, David Foster Wallace, “Getting Away From Already Pretty Much Being Away From It All”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Kindle edition, Little, Brown Book Group:
synonyms: word: lithesome
word: lissome
word: swack
word: gaunt
word: gracile
word: lank
word: lean
word: leansome
word: lithe
word: lithesome
word: lissome
word: rangy
word: sleek
word: slender
word: slight
word: slim
word: slinky
word: svelte
word: swack
word: sylphlike
word: willowy
glosses: Slim but not skinny.
examples: text: the elephant’s lithe trunk.
text: … she danced with a kind of passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with flexuous grace …
ref: 1861, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Elsie Venner, page 125
text: Doolittle and myself waited. Colebrook kept on cautiously, squirming his long body in sinuous waves like a lizard's through the grass, and was soon lost to us. No snake could have been lither.
ref: 1900, Grant Allen, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter VIII, in Hilda Wade:
synonyms: word: pliant
word: flexible
word: limber
word: bain
word: bendable
word: bendsome
word: bendy
word: flexible
word: flexile
word: limber
word: lithe
glosses: Capable of being easily bent; flexible.
examples: text: Yet the 2016 Éxilé rosé from Lise et Bertrand Jousset in the Loire Valley, made mostly of gamay, was yeasty let^([sic – meaning yet]) light and lithe, while the 2016 Indigeno from Ancarani in Emilia-Romagna, made of trebbiano, was taut and earthy.
ref: 2018 March 8, Eric Asimov, “Bubbles, With Joy: Pétillant Naturel’s Triumphant Return”, in The New York Times:
glosses: Adaptable.
Derived terms: lissom
lithely
litheness
slithy
Related terms: -inda
lind
linden
Linda