Lin
Origin 1
From Middle English linnen, from Old English linnan ("to cease from, desist, lose, yield up"), from Proto-Germanic *linnanÄ… ("to turn, move aside, avoid"), from Proto-Indo-European *ley- ("to elude, avoid, shrink from"). Cognate with Danish linne ("to stop, rest"), Swedish dialectal linna ("to pause, rest"), Icelandic linna ("to stop, rest").
Full definition of lin
Verb
- (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To desist (from something), stop.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.i:Halfe furious vnto his foe he came,
Resolv'd in minde all suddenly to win,
Or soone to lose, before he once would lin .... - (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To cease; leave off.
Derived terms
Origin 2
From Irish or Gaelic.