Where does “lay” come from?

lay (Mauritian Creole) comes from French ail, from Old French ail, from Latin allium, from Proto-Indo-European ālu-.

lay (Mauritian Creole): garlic; moth

Definitions

  1. garlic; moth

Ancestry of “lay”, step by step

lay traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via French ail

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Frenchailgarlic
2Old Frenchail—
3Latinalliumlate form of ālium
4Proto-Indo-Europeanālu-—

via Malagasy ley

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Malagasyley—
Every word from Proto-Indo-European ālu- →Every word from Latin allium →Every word from Old French ail →