lek

name

1. A river, the northern arm of the River Rhine in the Netherlands.

noun

Etymology: From Albanian lek, named after Alexander the Great, whose name is often shortened to Leka in Albanian.

1. The currency unit of Albania, divided into 100 qindarka.

   “With the loss of control by the Government over foreign exchange surrender requirements and the almost complete depletion of foreign exchange reserves, in early 1992 the official rate was further devalued to leks 50 = $1.”

   “1997, Igor Artimiev, Gary J. Fine, Country Studies: Albania, Ira W. Lieberman, Stilpon S. Nestor, Raj M. Desai, Between State and Market: Mass Privatization in Transition Economies, page 178, Enterprise shares are sold at voucher auctions in exchange for either immaterial privatization leks (through a bank transfer from the bidder's privatization lek account) or through privatization vouchers, which are submitted at the time of bidding.”

verb

Etymology: From Germanic roots meaning "play". In the biology sense, it comes specifically from Swedish lek (“child's play”), by means of Swedish leka (“to play”). The verb is first attested in English in 1871 and the noun at least as early as 1867.

1. To take part in the courtship and display behaviour of a lek.

   “Males in many lekking species have conspicuous morphological ornaments that may be targets of female choice, but male contest competition may also be involved.”

   “The second reason lekking is so fascinating is because the males aggregate.”

2. To play.

   “T’lads is lekkin i t’park.”