Translation
to lull, to rock (a baby)
Word origin
Imitative rather than borrowed. Lull in English, lullen in Dutch, lullen and lallen in German, lulic in the Slavic languages: half of Europe made the same word out of the same noise, the low repeated syllable a person sings over a cot. Zamenhof simply took the shape they all shared.
- Origin
- Imitative (widely shared across Europe)
- Root
- lul-
- English cognates
- lull, lullaby, lalling
Examples
.
The mother rocked the baby until it slept.
.
The waves rocked the boat all night long.
.
He rocked the child in his arms.
A gentle word, and one of the small number in Esperanto that came from a sound rather than from a written source. is what you do to a baby: rock it, sway it, soothe it towards sleep. It is transitive, so it always takes an object - you lull someone. For the boat rocking on its own, you would want i.
Two derivatives are worth having straight away. A is a cradle, lul- plus the tool suffix --, the thing you do the lulling with. And a lulkanto is a lullaby, lul- plus , a song - a compound so obvious that a learner who has met and kanti can build it without ever having been taught it. That is the language working as designed.
The figurative sense carries over from English too: o, to lull someone into a false sense of security.
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luli: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "luli" (to lull, to rock (a baby)): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 38.