Lao

How to spell lao

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce lao

What does lao mean?

1. nounThe Tai language spoken in Laos, or a member of the Lao people of Southeast Asia.
2. adjectiveRelating to Laos, its people, or its language.

Lao in a sentence

• noun

  The menu was printed in both lao and English for tourists.

• adjective

  The restaurant specialises in lao cuisine, including sticky rice and grilled fish.

• noun

  She spent two years teaching lao to aid workers heading to Vientiane.

• adjective

  Traditional lao silk is woven on wooden looms in the highland villages.

Where does lao come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word is the endonym of the Lao people, a Tai-speaking group whose homeland is the country now called Laos in mainland Southeast Asia. It reached English through French during the colonial period of the late nineteenth century, when France administered the region as part of French Indochina; the French rendered the name and the country as 'Laos', adding a silent 's' that English kept for the country while the people and language stayed 'Lao'. The root itself belongs to the Tai language family and is closely related to the names of neighbouring Tai groups, and its deeper meaning is not settled, with proposals linking it to words for 'human being' or to an old clan name. Because the spelling preserves the original three letters without the French 's', writers sometimes add an extra letter or confuse it with 'Laos'. The simplest memory aid is that the people and the language drop the 's' that the country keeps.

How the word is built

• lao (a single unanalysable root: the native name of the Lao people and their Tai language)