log

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A thick piece of a tree trunk that has been cut.

   We sat on a fallen log beside the stream.

2. 2
   noun

   An official written record of events, especially on a ship or plane.

   The captain noted the storm in the ship's log.

3. 3
   verb

   To record something officially in writing.

   The nurse logged the patient's temperature every hour.

4. 4
   verb

   To cut down trees for wood.

   He spent his younger days logging pines in Alaska.

Multiword verbs with log

• log off Phrasal verb B1

  to end a signed-in session on a computer or online service

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Log is first recorded in Middle English for a bulky mass of wood. The nautical sense developed from a late 16th-century wooden device cast into the water to measure a ship’s speed; records of its readings were kept in a journal, which consequently became known as a log.

From Middle English logge, logg (first recorded in Anglo-Latin as loggum), of uncertain origin, but probably from Old Norse lóg, lág (“felled tree, log”), derived from Old Norse liggja (“to lie”). If so, then cognate with Norwegian låg (“fallen tree”), Dutch loog (“wood, timber, lumber”). Alternatively, directly from Norwegian låg (“fallen tree”), which could have been borrowed through the Norwegian timber trade. However the Old Norse/Middle Norwegian vowel is long while Middle English vowel is short.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary