Other forms: lyes
Lye is a strong alkaline solution used in making soap. Mix the lye, lye and fat, handle lye carefully.
All real soap is made with it: lye reacts with fat and the reaction consumes it entirely, so no lye remains in the finished bar. It burns skin badly before that reaction, which is why soap-makers wear gloves and goggles. It was once made by pouring water through wood ash.
1nounlyeA strong alkaline solution used in making soap.
“Wear gloves when you mix the lye, because it can burn your skin.”
lye is a chemical.
Old English leag, from a Germanic root meaning to wash. Lather comes from the same family.
Proto-Indo-European
*lewh₃- — to wash
Proto-Germanic
*laugō
Proto-West Germanic
*laugu
Old English
lēah
Middle English
leye
English, today
lye
Built from
From Middle English leye, lye, from Old English lēah, lēag (“lye”), from Proto-West Germanic laugu, from Proto-Germanic laugō, from Proto-Indo-European lewh₃- (“to wash”). Cognate with stq Loge, Looie (“lye”), Dutch loog (“lye”), German Low German Loge, Loje, Loog (“lye”), German Lauge (“lye”). Compare typologically ῥύμμα < ῥύπτω (“to cleanse, to wash”); м́ыло (a nomen instrumenti of мыть).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA