Sunday, October 2, 2011
Lego \LE-go\ , noun;
Lego is first attested in 1957 from Danish Lego, which is a respelling of leg godt ("play well"), based on lege ("to play"). The attestation may be a bit late, as the company website says the Lego Group was founded in 1932 and the word is their coinage. The discrepancy is probably because the company was originally a small carpenter's workshop, and the iconic colorful bricks didn't come along until 1958 - which coincides with the Oxford English Dictionary's first recorded attestation.