• lullaby •
Pronunciation: lê-lê-bai • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A cradlesong, berceuse, soothing song, especially one to lull children to sleep.
Notes: This word has no relatives, but it may be used as a verb, as 'to lullaby a baby to sleep'. It is clearly based on lull with its three Ls. The sounds [l] and [r] are known in linguistics as "liquid sounds", characteristically the most beautiful sounds in any language.
In Play: Lullabies are often filled with liquid sounds: "Fiona O'Malley put her baby to sleep at night, singing the old Irish lullaby 'Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ra.'" While this word is a lexical orphan, it is subject to figurative use: "Fiona didn't like to drive at night because the highway's lullaby drove her to sleep."
Word History: Today's Good Word is clearly built on lull, the intent of all lullabies. Lull is a word that seems to have relatives all over the IE family. Julius Pokorny, the grandfather of all PIE etymology, even posited a PIE origin of la-/le-/lo-, which he defined as "expressive roots (bark, howl, etc.), onomatopoetic words". He supports his claim with words like Sanskrit rayati "barks", Greek lalos "talkative", Armenian lats' "cry, weep", Latin lamentum "lamentation", Russian layat' "to bark", Lithuanian liūliuoti "to lull", and Serbian ljuljati "to rock, cradle". -By is a variant of bye, a combining form common on farewells (good-by, bye-bye) and lullabies (hush-a-bye, rock-a-bye). (Now let's leave Dan Obertance, a regular contributor since 2013, a note of gratitude for today's exciting Good Word.)
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