adj.
‘lawful’
(Modern English )Formed on lawe (n.) (Gordon and Onions 1933: 172 (see further on spelling), EVG, followed by McGee).
PGmc Ancestor
*lag-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
lǫg (pl.) ‘law; law community, law-district’
(ONP lag (sb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far lóg, Icel lög, Norw log, Dan lov, Sw lag
OE Cognate
cp. orlæg ‘fate’, gelagu ‘extent, surface (of sea)’, oferlagu ‘cloak’, ealdorlegu, feorhlegu ‘course of one’s life, death’
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
C3d
MED and OED have a handful of mostly 13c. attestations from Trin.Hom. and Orrm. onwards. See also lawe (n.).
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Pe 565
Osgood’s emendation to *l[awe]ly and Goll’s to *l[e]uyly ‘permissable’ have not been taken up by subsequent editors (see Vant 565n and etymological discussion).
MED lauelīche (adv.)[ http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED24823&egs=all&egdisplay=open], OED lawly (adj. and adv.)[ http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/106435?redirectedFrom=lawly&], HTOED , Dance lawe, Bj. 249, SPS 84–6, 307–14, de Vries lǫg, Mag. lög, Orel *laʒan, AEW læg; lagu (3)