Lendan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic English verb meaning to come to or arrive at a particular place, drawn from Old English usage
2. A historical Old English term for reaching or arriving at a destination, now no longer used in modern speech
3. Old English verb describing the act of coming to a place or setting foot on a shore after travel

Etymology: Old English "lendan" meant "to lend," and it is a word English has used for over a thousand years, though it survives today only in the modern verb "lend." Its root is the Old English adjective "lēan," meaning "loan" or "reward," which is also the source of the old word "len" and the Middle English noun "lene." The "-an" ending is the regular Old English infinitive suffix, so the verb is simply a derivative built on that noun stem. The verb's deeper connection is to "lean," which may surprise readers who would not link lending with leaning. Both descend from a Germanic root meaning something like "to lend" or "to grant," and the sense of "lean" as "to incline toward" developed separately from it. The two words are related but took different paths, and the Old English noun "lēan," which meant reward or recompense, is the same root that gave "lean" its older sense of "to bend toward something."