lease
UK[liːs]US[liːs]
n
A legal contract by which a property owner allows another person to use it for a specified period in return for payment.
v
To grant or obtain the use of property under the terms of a lease.
Etymology
The word 'lease' entered English in the late 14th century from Anglo-Norman 'les', a variant of Old French 'laissier', meaning 'to let, leave, or let go'. This Old French term derives from Latin 'laxare', meaning 'to loosen, slacken, or release'. The semantic journey from the physical act of loosening or releasing to the legal concept of letting property is clear: it involves the owner 'releasing' their strict hold on the property for a time. The modern abstract meaning retains this core idea of a temporary release of possession under agreed conditions.
Analysis
The word 'lease' is a simplex word of Anglo-Norman origin. It does not contain separable, productive morphemes in modern English that are direct substrings of the current spelling.
Examples
They signed a five-year lease for the apartment.
The company decided to lease its new office space rather than buy it.
The lease on the car expires next month.