Reading some Middle English this afternoon, I came across the word lere, meaning “face”.
”That’s got to be where leer comes from,” I said, with the unwavering confidence of a folk etymologist, and then my confidence wavered a bit and I looked it up.
The democratic AHD says I’m right, deriving leer from OE hleor (≈ “side of face”, where the ear, which hears, is located), going back to PIE *kleu- “hear”.
Other cognates include listen, loud, the –laut in umlaut, Clio, the –cles in Heracles, and Greek κλέος “fame”
That’s a laut.
