the.com/lieu
French for 'place', surviving in English only inside one fossilized phrase: in lieu of.
means A word meaning 'place' or 'stead,' used in English almost exclusively in the phrase 'in lieu of,' meaning 'instead of.'
from Straight from French 'lieu,' meaning 'place,' which descends from Latin 'locus' (also 'place' — the ancestor of 'local' and 'locate'). English borrowed the phrase 'in lieu of' wholesale centuries ago, but never adopted 'lieu' as a free-standing word, so it survives today like a fly in amber — frozen inside one phrase, unable to wander off and mean 'place' on its own.
- etymology
- from Latin locus, meaning place
- relative
- cousin of locale, local, and locomotion
- solo use
- almost never appears outside 'in lieu of'
- legal cousin
- lieutenant literally means place-holder