Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/lěkъ

From Proto-Indo-European *loykʷós, cognate with Ancient Greek λοιπός (loipós, “remaining”). Akin to Lithuanian lai̇̃kas (“time”), Latvian laĩks (“time, weather”).

The only certain meaning is “remaining”. There are varying hypotheses regarding the secondary meanings attested in South Slavic dialects:

• Bezlaj: Derived from the titual etymology via semantic shift remaining → filtered → fine, delicate.
• Skok: Dialectal South Slavic innovation, derived from Etymology 2. Possibly related to Romanian oleacă (“a little”).

It is unclear if modern Bulgarian за́лека (záleka, “subtly, with attention to detail”) (possibly also и́злека (ízleka, “barely”), поле́ка (poléka, “steadily, gradually”)), Serbo-Croatian zȁlijek (“for a while, for a bit”) descend from *lěkъ or are recent corruptions of Proto-Slavic *lьgъkъ (“light”).

*lě̑kъ^[1]

1. remaining, residual

   (possibly) → fine, detailed

   (perhaps) → delicate, subtle

• *otъlěkъ (“remainder”)

• East Slavic:
  • Old East Slavic: лѣкъ m (lěkŭ), лѣка f (lěka, “account, precise calculation”)
    • Russian: лек m (lek, “remainder”)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic: *лѣкъ (*lěkŭ) (attested in compounds)
  • ⇒ Bulgarian: ле́чък (léčǎk) (dialectal)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: ле̑к m (“a bit”)

    Latin script: lȇk m (“a bit”)

  • Slovene: lẹ̑k m (“little quantity”) (tonal orthography) (dialectal, substantivized)

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “лек”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1987), “*lěka/*lěkъ I”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 14 (*labati – *lěteplъjь), Moscow: Nauka, page 191
• Zhuravlyov, A. F., editor (2011), “*otъlěkъ”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 37 (*otъgryzati (sę) – *otъpasti), Moscow: Nauka, →ISBN, page 124
• Georgiev, Vladimir I., editor (1986), “лек¹”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 3 (крес¹ – мѝнго¹), Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Pubg. House, page 351
• “laikas”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė [Lithuanian etymological dictionary database], 2007–2012

• Typically viewed as a Germanic loanword^[1], either directly borrowed from Gothic *𐌻𐌴𐌺𐍃 (*lēks, “healer”) (< Proto-Germanic *lēkiz) or secondarily coined from *lěčiti (“to heal”) +‎ *-ъ, itself derived from the aforementioned source. Further akin to Old Irish líaig (“healer”).
• Mladenov, Skok: Of inherited origin, originally conveying “enchantment, spell”, possibly akin to Ancient Greek ληκέω (lēkéō, “to make noise”).
• Bezlaj, Gołąb: Substantivized from Etymology 1, perhaps via residue → product, fine quantity (of brewing, preparation) → medicine.

Standard objection against the Germanic origin is that no Germanic language conveys the instrumental meaning “medicine”.

*lě̃kъ m^[1][2][3]

1. remedy, medicine

• *lěka f

• East Slavic:
  • Belarusian: ле́кі pl (ljéki)
  • Russian: лека́ f (leká)
  • Ukrainian: лік m (lik), лі́ка f (líka)
• South Slavic:
  • Old Church Slavonic:

    Old Cyrillic script: лѣкъ (lěkŭ)

    Glagolitic script: ⰾⱑⰽⱏ (lěkŭ)

  • Bulgarian: лек m (lek); (dialectal) лека́ f (leká)
  • Macedonian: лек (lek)
  • Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: ле̑к m

    Latin script: lijȇk, lȇk m

  • Slovene: lẹ̑k (tonal orthography)
• West Slavic:
  • Old Czech: lék
    • Czech: lék
  • Polish: lek
  • Old Slovak: liek
    • Pannonian Rusyn: лїк (ljik)
    • Slovak: liek
  • Sorbian:

    Upper Sorbian: lěk

• Non-Slavic:
  • Romanian: leac

• Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “лека”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
• Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1987), “*lěka/*lěkъ II”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 14 (*labati – *lěteplъjь), Moscow: Nauka, page 192
• Georgiev, Vladimir I., editor (1986), “лек²”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 3 (крес¹ – мѝнго¹), Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Pubg. House, page 351