Letとは

意味・読み方・使い方

接尾辞

-let

1. a diminutive suffix; for example:

• manlet, a small man
• booklet, a small book
• applet, a small computer application
• owlet, a small (young) owl
• piglet, a small (young) pig
• manlet, a short man

1. piece; as in a suit of armor for example:

• bracelet, the "arm piece" or "arm protector"
• gauntlet, the "glove piece" or "glove protector"
• epaulet, the "shoulder piece" or "shoulder protector"
• where the noun let lends the sense of a hindrance, deflector, protective piece, and hence protector

派生語

使用する際の注意点

Alongside -ie / -y and -ette, -let is one of the three most productive diminutive affixes in modern English. It is used almost exclusively with concrete nouns and (unusually for a diminutive) never with names. When used with objects, it generally denotes diminution only in size; when used with animals, it generally denotes young animals; when used with adult persons, it is generally depreciative, connoting pettiness and conveying contempt. When used to describe parts in a suit of armor and some other contexts it denotes a piece or component of the larger whole.

参照

• Schneider, Klaus P. Diminutives in English, p. 96 et seq. 2003.
• http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/let_n1
• http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/let_n

アナグラム

• ELT, ETL, LTE, TEL, TLE, Tel., elt, tel

発音

• IPA^(key): /lɛt/
• 韻: -ɛt
• Homophone: Lett

語源 1

From Middle English leten, læten, from 古期英語 lǣtan (“to allow, let go, bequeath, leave, rent”), from Proto-Germanic *lētaną (“to leave behind, allow”), from Proto-Indo-European *lēd- (“to let, leave behind”). Cognate with Scots lat, lete (“to let, leave”), North Frisian lete (“to let”), West Frisian litte (“to let”), Dutch laten (“to let, leave”), German lassen (“to let, leave, allow”), Swedish låta (“to let, allow, leave”), Icelandic láta (“to let”), Albanian lë (“to allow, let, leave”) and partially related to French laisser (“to let”).

動詞

let (third-person singular simple present lets, present participle letting, simple past let or (廃れた用法) leet, past participle let or (まれに) letten)

1. (transitive) To allow to, not to prevent (+ infinitive, but usually without to).

   After he knocked for hours, I decided to let him come in.

   • Bible, Exodus 8:28

     Pharaoh said, I will let you go.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     If your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is […]

   • 1971, Ursula K. Le Guin, The Tombs of Atuan

     He could not be let die of thirst there alone in the dark.

   • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:

     The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing", […] and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.

2. (transitive) To leave.

   Let me alone!

   • (Can we date this quote by Edmund Spenser かつ provide title, author's full name, かつ other details?)

     Yet neither spins nor cards, ne cares nor frets, / But to her mother Nature all her care she lets.

3. (transitive) To allow the release of (a fluid).

   The physicians let about a pint of his blood, but to no avail.

4. (transitive) To allow possession of (a property etc.) in exchange for rent.

   I decided to let the farmhouse to a couple while I was working abroad.

5. (transitive) To give, grant, or assign, as a work, privilege, or contract; often with out.

   to let the building of a bridge;  to let out the lathing and the plastering

6. (transitive) Used to introduce an imperative in the first or third person.

   Let's put on a show!

   Let us have a moment of silence.

   Let me just give you the phone number.

   Let P be the point where AB and OX intersect.

7. (transitive, obsolete except with know) To cause (+ bare infinitive).

   Can you let me know what time you'll be arriving?

   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter iv, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV:

     Soo within a whyle kynge Pellinore cam with a grete hoost / and salewed the peple and the kyng / and ther was grete ioye made on euery syde / Thenne the kyng lete serche how moche people of his party ther was slayne / And ther were founde but lytel past two honderd men slayne and viij knyȝtes of the table round in their pauelions

   • 1818, John Keats, "To—":

     Time's sea hath been five years at its slow ebb, / Long hours have to and fro let creep the sand […].

使用する際の注意点

• The use of “let” to introduce an imperative may sometimes be confused with its use, as its own imperative, in the sense of “to allow”. For example, the sentence “Let me go to the store.” could either be a second-person imperative of “let” (addressing someone who might prevent the speaker from going to the store) or a first-person singular imperative of “go” (not implying any such preventer).

同意語

• (to allow): allow, permit

派生語

名詞

let (複数形 lets)

1. The allowing of possession of a property etc. in exchange for rent.
   • (Can we date this quote by Charles Dickens かつ provide title, author's full name, かつ other details?)

     Then he says “You would call it a Good Let, Madam?”
     “O certainly a Good Let sir.”

語源 2

From Middle English letten (“to hinder, delay”), from 古期英語 lettan (“to hinder, delay”; 字義どおりに, “to make late”), from Proto-Germanic *latjaną. Akin to 古期英語 latian (“to delay”), Dutch letten, 古期英語 læt (“late”). More at late, delay.

動詞

let (三人称単数 現在形 lets, 現在分詞 letting, 過去形 letted, 過去分詞 let)

1. (archaic) To hinder, prevent, impede, hamper, cumber; to obstruct (someone または something).
   • Bible, 2 Thessalonians 2:7

     He who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Tennyson

     Mine ancient wound is hardly whole, / And lets me from the saddle.

2. (obsolete) To prevent someone from doing something; also to prevent something from happening.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts 8:

     And as they went on their waye, they cam unto a certayne water, and the gelded man sayde: Se here is water, what shall lett me to be baptised?

3. (obsolete) To tarry or delay.
   • (Can we date this quote by Chaucer かつ provide title, author's full name, かつ other details?)

     No longer would he let.

   • 1826, Early Metrical Tales; Including the History of Sir Egeir, Sir Gryme, and Sir Gray-Steill, Edinburgh, The History of Sir Eger, Sir Grahame, And Sir Gray-Steel, page 7:

     And for that strake I would not let, / Another upon him soon I set,

名詞

let (複数形 lets)

1. An obstacle or hindrance.
   • 1567 Arthur Golding; Ovid's Metamorphoses Bk. 3 Lines 60-1

     And Cadmus saw his campanie make tarience in that sort

     He marveld what should be their let, and went to seeke them out.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 16, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     Paulus Emilius going to the glorious expedition of Macedon, advertised the people of Rome during his absence not to speake of his actions: For the licence of judgements is an especiall let in great affaires.

   • (Can we date this quote by Latimer かつ provide title, author's full name, かつ other details?)

     Consider whether your doings be to the let of your salvation or not.

2. (tennis) The hindrance caused by the net during serve, only if the ball falls legally.

派生語

• without let or hindrance

参照

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

アナグラム

• ELT, ETL, LTE, TEL, TLE, Tel., elt, tel