Loose vs Lose

Don

To loose is to set free.

To lose is to misplace, or not be able to find.

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Comments

Paul Golder

But what if I wanted to loose something, but ended up losing it first? [;)]

David Wilson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/103783#Comment_103783

If we go back but a few years in history, we would realise these are the same.

"Tis lost because it was too loose.

Happens with boats. Happens with horses.

Some things just tend to set themselves free......

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/103800#Comment_103800

Or I could point out that they are variants of the same Proto-IndoEuropean root *leu- which shows up in Sanskrit as the verb meaning "to cut"[8-|]

Alan Charles Gielczyk

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/103810#Comment_103810

lose-– ORIGIN Old English losian ‘perish, destroy’, also ‘become unable to find’, from los ‘loss’.
Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

loose-– ORIGIN Middle English loos ‘free from bonds’, from Old Norse lauss, of Germanic origin.
Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/103912#Comment_103912

lose: O.E. losian "be lost,
perish," from los "destruction, loss,"
from P.Gmc. *lausa (cf. O.N. los "the breaking up of an army"), from PIE base *leu- "to loosen, divide, cut apart, untie,
separate" (cf. Skt. lunati "cuts, cuts
off," lavitram "sickle;" Gk. lyein "to loosen, untie, slacken," lysus "a loosening;" L. luere
"to loose, release, atone for"). Replaced related leosan
(a class II strong verb whose pp. loren
survives in forlorn and love-lorn),
from P.Gmc. *leusanan (cf. O.H.G. virliosan, Ger. verlieren,
O.Fris. urliasa, Goth. fraliusan "to lose"). Transitive sense of "to
part with accidentally" is from c.1200. Meaning "to be defeated" (in a
game, etc.) is from 1530s. To lose (one's) mind
"become insane" is attested from c.1500. To lose
out "fail" is 1858, Amer.Eng.
loose (adj.): c.1300, from O.N. lauss
"loose, free, vacant, dissolute," cognate with O.E. leas "devoid of, false, feigned, incorrect," from
P.Gmc. *lausaz (cf. Dan. løs "loose, untied," M.Du., Ger. los, Goth. laus),
from PIE *lau-/*leu- "to loosen, divide,
cut apart" (see lose). The verb is first recorded early 13c.,
"to set free." Sense of "unchaste, immoral" is recorded from late 15c.
Figurative sense of loose cannon was in use
by mid-20c.; Do you suppose this is off topic? May I suggest that Logos needs to provide a Proto-IndoEuropean dictionary to support Latin and Greek; and Proto-AfroAsiatic for Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac and Coptic?