Meaning

verb bestow a quality on

verb give temporarily; let have for a limited time

verb have certain characteristics of qualities for something; be open or vulnerable to

originFrom earlier len (with excrescent -d, as in sound), from Middle English lenen, lænen, from Old English lǣnan (“to lend; give, grant, lease”), from Proto-West Germanic *laihnijan, from Proto-Germanic *laihnijaną (“to loan”), from Proto-Germanic *laihną (“loan”), from Proto-Indo-European *leykʷ- (“to leave, leave over”). Cognate with Scots len, lend (“to lend”), West Frisian liene (“to lend,…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0