leaven

Meanings

1. Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.
2. Anything that induces change, especially a corrupting or vitiating change.
3. Chametz.

1. To add a leavening agent.
2. To cause to rise by fermentation.
3. To temper an action, decision, attitude, characteristic, etc.
4. To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.
5. To rise or become larger; to prove.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-us Proto-Indo-European *h₁léngʰusder. ▲ Proto-Italic *breɣʷisinflu.? Proto-Italic *leɣʷis Latin levis Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin levō Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Italic *-men Latin -men Vulgar Latin *levāmender. Old French levainbor. Middle English levayn English leaven From Middle English levayn, borrowed from Old French levain, from Vulgar Latin *levāmen, a noun based on Latin levō (“raise”).