Other forms: leeks
A leek is a long white and green vegetable of the onion family. Slice the leek, leek and potato soup, wash the leeks.
Grit gets down between the layers as it grows, so it must be split and washed rather than merely rinsed. It is the national emblem of Wales and is worn on Saint David's Day, alongside or instead of the daffodil.
1nounleekA long white and green vegetable of the onion family.
“She made a warm soup of leeks and potatoes.”
leek is a vegetable.
Old English leac names the plant, from a Germanic root. Garlic is gar-leac, the spear leek.
Proto-Indo-European
*lewg- — to bend
Proto-Germanic
*laukaz — leek
Proto-West Germanic
*lauk
Old English
lēac
Middle English
leek
English, today
leek
Built from
From Middle English leek, leeke, lek, leke, leyke, from Old English lēac, lēc (“allium; garlic or leek”), from Proto-West Germanic lauk, from Proto-Germanic laukaz (“leek”), from leukaną, lūkaną (“to close, shut”), from Proto-Indo-European lewg- (“to bend”). 2 Cognate with gsw Làuich (“leek”), Dutch look (“leek”), pdt Luak (“leek”), German Lauch (“leek”), Danish løg (“onion”), Faroese leykur (“onion”), Icelandic laukur (“garlic, leek, onion”), Norwegian Bokmål løk (“onion”), Norwegian Nynorsk lauk, løk (“onion”), Swedish lök (“onion”), Bulgarian, mk and Russian лук (“onion”), pox lauk (“garlic”), Serbo-Croatian лу̏к, lȕk (“onion; garlic”), Estonian lauk (“allium”), Finnish and izh laukka (“onion”), liv lōka (“onion”), olo laukku (“onion”), lud lauk (“leek; onion”); also cel-gau lunget (“to load”), Irish fulaing (“to bear; to support; to sustain; to mountain”), Scottish Gaelic fuiling, fulaing (“to suffer; to stand; to allow; to bear”), Welsh gollwng (“to drop, release; to leak; to dissolve”), Latin luxus (“dislocated”), Ancient Greek λύγος (“chaste tree; flexible twig, withe”), Albanian vlug (“peak”), Sanskrit रुग्ण (“bent, broken, checked; diseased, infirm, sick”). See garlic.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA