756: beleaguer Jan 2, 2017

Though often used to refer to every-day matters, 'beleaguer' or more often its participle, 'beleaguered' was once solely a military-term, originally from the Dutch, 'belegeren'. In the late 16th century, Sir John Smyth wrote of English soldiers, "they will not vouchsafe in their speeches or writings to use our ancient terms belonging to matters of war, but do call a camp by the Dutch name". The camp in question is the Dutch term, 'leaguer' ultimately originating from 'leger' meaning 'to build'. Despite Smyth's vexation, 'beleaguer' is not as un-English as he thought, with an Old English, 'leger' giving us 'lair'. The only different is the Dutch prefix, 'be-' meaning 'around', though it is also seen in Old English-derived words like 'besiege', and 'beset'.