Other forms: ledges
A ledge is a narrow shelf of rock on a cliff face. A rocky ledge, stand on the ledge, a window ledge.
Seabirds nest on them because nothing can reach them there, and guillemot eggs are pointed so they roll in a circle rather than off. A window ledge is the sill. The Old English word meant a crossbeam.
1nounledgeA narrow shelf of rock on a cliff.
“The climber rested on a narrow ledge halfway up the cliff.”
ledge is a shelf.
Old English lecg means a bar or crossbeam, from a Germanic root meaning a layer. Lay and layer are relatives.
Proto-Indo-European
*legʰ- — to lie, recline
Proto-Germanic
*lagjō — layer, stratum
Proto-West Germanic
*laggju — layer, strip, ledge, rung, bar
Old English
leċġ — bar, crossbeam
Middle English
legge
English, today
ledge
From Middle English legge, from Old English leċġ (“bar, crossbeam”), from Proto-West Germanic laggju (“layer, strip, ledge, rung, bar”), from Proto-Germanic lagjō (“layer, stratum”), from Proto-Indo-European legʰ- (“to lie, recline”). Cognate with West Frisian lêch (“a layer of sheaves on a threshing floor”), Dutch leg (“layer”), German Low German Legg (“wrinkle, fold, flat layer, stratum”), Middle High German legge, lecke (“position, layer, stratum, tier; pleat, hem”). Related to Middle English leggen (“to lay, apply”), from Old English leċġan (“to lay”); and Old English ġeleċġ (“positioning, arrangement, layout”) as in Old English limġeleċġ (“the disposition of the limbs, form, shape”). More at lay.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA