lew-
“to cut, to loosen”cut, loosen, free
Root for cutting/loosening, yielding Latin solvere (to loosen), Greek lyein, English lose.
Discussion
The root *lew- encoded cutting, loosening, and setting free. Latin solvere ("to loosen") generated solve and solution (the loosening of a problem), dissolve, absolve and absolution (loosening from guilt), and resolution (repeated loosening until clarity emerges). Greek lyein ("to loosen") gave analysis ("loosening apart" to examine components), catalyst ("loosening down," breaking through resistance), and paralysis ("loosening beside" — the body's capacity for movement undone). In Germanic, the root produced English lose, loose, and less — all carrying diminishment through separation. The word forlorn means "completely lost." The suffix -less generalizes absence across the entire language. Pokorny (681) reconstructed the root with its dual semantic charge of cutting and freeing. The trajectory from a concrete PIE verb meaning "to cut loose" to the modern vocabulary of problem-solving, chemical catalysis, and legal absolution represents one of the great metaphorical journeys in language history.
Notes
Pokorny 681-682. English lose, loose, solve, absolute, analyze, paralyze.