Timeline for Was “lukewarm” a way of saying “warm warm”?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| Nov 12, 2018 at 21:13 | comment | added | Adam Katz | JEL's answer appears to suggest that the ~obsolete “luke-” prefix refers to a mild characteristic (“from the Anglo-Saxon wlæc, the older meaning of which was 'weak'”), as exhibited by your answer here (“lukewarm” is less hot than “warm”). Perhaps “lukewarm” is the last survivor of that. (I could also find that the word “luke” is listed by Wiktionary as a back-formation of “lukewarm.”) | |
| Nov 6, 2018 at 22:41 | comment | added | Dan | I like the idea of using 'luke-' as a modifier. But I can't think of any other examples than the ones already given. | |
| Nov 6, 2018 at 22:36 | history | answered | Dan | CC BY-SA 4.0 |