leaven
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ-
Proto-Indo-European *-us
Proto-Indo-European *h₁léngʰusder.
▲
Proto-Italic *breɣʷisinflu.?
Proto-Italic *leɣʷis
Latin levis
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti
Proto-Italic *-āō
Latin -ō
Latin levō
Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥
Proto-Italic *-mn̥
Latin -men
Vulgar Latin *levāmender.
Old French levainbor.
Middle English levayn
English leaven
From Middle English levayn, borrowed from Old French levain, from Vulgar Latin *levāmen, a noun based on Latin levō (“raise”).
Inflected forms:
form: leavens
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: leavens
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: leavening
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: leavened
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: leavened
pos: verb
tags: past
form: leven
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Anything that induces change, especially a corrupting or vitiating change.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
uncountable
examples: Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
On the far side was reflected a single red and meteoric cloud, which had treasured one last crimson ray from the sunset, or perhaps nursed within it the fiery leaven.
The leaven of insincerity worked through all the fibres of his being.
gloss: Chametz.
pos: noun
tags: Judaism
countable
uncountable
examples: On the fourteenth day of Nisan men search for leaven by candlelight.
gloss: To add a leavening agent.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Yeast is used to leaven bread, making it rise during baking.
gloss: To cause to rise by fermentation.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To temper an action, decision, attitude, characteristic, etc.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: Duke. No more euasion:
We haue with a leauen'd, and prepared choice
Proceeded to you; therefore take your honors:[...]
“A tinge of Jewish blood is not a bad thing. It leavens the”—she looked at him—“stolid stupidity of the ordinary Englishman.”
With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get[…]
gloss: To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: The comedian's jokes helped leaven the atmosphere during the serious meeting.
Her optimism seemed to leaven the otherwise tense environment.
With these and the like deceivable doctrines, he levens also his prayer.
[…] pursue virtue virtuously: leven not good actions, nor render virtues disputable. Stain not fair acts with foul intentions […]
gloss: To rise or become larger; to prove.
pos: verb
Related words: yeast
Derived words: leavenless
leavenous
natural leaven
of the same leaven
leavened
leavener
leavening
overleaven
unleavenable
unleavened
Translations: