-lock

The suffix -lock in Modern English survives only in wedlock and bridelock. It descends from Old English -lác, which was more productive, carrying a meaning of "action or proceeding, state of being, practice, ritual". As a noun, Old English lác means "play, sport", deriving from an earlier meaning of "sacrificial ritual or hymn" (Proto-Germanic *laikaz). A putative term for a "hymn to the gods" (*ansu-laikaz) in early Germanic paganism is attested only as a personal name, Oslac.

Suffix

The Old English nouns in -lác include brýdlác "nuptials" (from which the now obsolete bridelock), beadolác, feohtlác and heaðolác "warfare", hǽmedlác and wiflác "

The Old Norse counterpart is -leikr, loaned into North Midlands Middle English as -laik, in the Ormulum appearing as -leȝȝe. The suffix came to be used synonymously with -nesse, forming abstract nouns, e.g. clænleȝȝe "cleanness".

Noun

The etymology of the suffix is the same as that of the noun lác "play, sport", but also "sacrifice, offering", corresponding to obsolete Modern English lake (dialectal laik) "sport, fun, glee, game", cognate to Gothic laiks "dance", Old Norse leikr "game, sport" (origin of English lark "play, joke, folly") and Old High German leih "play, song, melody." Ultimately, the word descends from

Thus, the suffix originates as a second member in nominal compounds, and referred to "actions or proceedings, practice, ritual" identical with the noun lác "play, sport, performance" (obsolete Modern English lake "fun, sport, glee", obsolete or dialectal Modern German leich).

Only found in Old English is the meaning of '(religious) offering,

Oslac has Scandinavian and continental cognates, Asleikr and Ansleih. Based on this, Koegel (1894) assumes that the term *ansu-laikaz may go back to Common Germanic times, denoting a Leich für die Götter, a hymn, dance or play for the gods in early Germanic paganism. Grimm (s.v. Leich) compares the meaning of Greek χορος, denoting first the ceremonial procession to the sacrifice, but also ritual dance and hymns pertaining to religious ritual.

Hermann (1928) identifies as such *ansulaikaz the hymns sung by the Germans to their god of war mentioned by

Look up lác in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Hörgr
• Blót

References

• Oxford English Dictionary
• Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch
• Rudolf Koegel, Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur bis zum Ausgange des Mittelalters (1894), p. 8.
• Paul Hermann, Altdeutsche Kultgebräuche, Jena (1928), p. 10.[1]