The suffix English: '''-lock''' in Modern English survives only in English, Old (ca.450-1100);: [[:wikt:wedlock|wedlock]] and English, Old (ca.450-1100);: [[:wikt:bridelock|bridelock]]. It descends from Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: '''-lác''', which was more productive, carrying a meaning of "action or proceeding, state of being, practice, ritual". As a noun, Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: lác means "play, sport", deriving from an earlier meaning of "sacrificial ritual or hymn" (Proto-Germanic Germanic languages: *laikaz). A putative term for a "hymn to the gods" (Germanic languages: *[[Æsir|ansu]]-laikaz) in early Germanic paganism is attested only as a personal name, Oslac.
The Old English nouns in English, Old (ca.450-1100);: -lác include English, Old (ca.450-1100);: brýdlác "nuptials" (from which the now obsolete English: bridelock), English, Old (ca.450-1100);: beadolác, English, Old (ca.450-1100);: feohtlác and English, Old (ca.450-1100);: heaðolác "warfare", English, Old (ca.450-1100);: hǽmedlác and English, Old (ca.450-1100);: wiflác "sexual intercourse", English, Old (ca.450-1100);: réaflác "robbery", English, Old (ca.450-1100);: wítelác "punishment", English, Old (ca.450-1100);: wróhtlác "calumny" besides the English, Old (ca.450-1100);: wedlác "pledge-giving", also "nuptials" (from which English: wedlock). A few compounds appear only in Middle English, thus English, Middle (1100-1500);: dweomerlak "occult practice, magic", ferlac "terror", shendlac "disgrace", English, Middle (1100-1500);: treulac "faithfulness", English, Middle (1100-1500);: wohlac "wooing", all of them extinct by the onset of Early Modern English. The earliest words taking the English, Old (ca.450-1100);: -lác suffix were probably related to warfare, comparable to the English, Middle (1100-1500);: -pleȝa (-play) suffix found in "swordplay".
The Old Norse counterpart is Norse, Old: -leikr, loaned into North Midlands Middle English as English, Middle (1100-1500);: [[:wikt:-laik|-laik]], in the Ormulum appearing as English, Middle (1100-1500);: -leȝȝe. The suffix came to be used synonymously with English, Middle (1100-1500);: -nesse, forming abstract nouns, e.g. clænleȝȝe "cleanness".
The etymology of the suffix is the same as that of the noun English, Old (ca.450-1100);: lác "play, sport", but also "sacrifice, offering", corresponding to obsolete Modern English English, Middle (1100-1500);: lake (dialectal English, Middle (1100-1500);: laik) "sport, fun, glee, game", cognate to Gothic Gothic: laiks "dance", Old Norse Norse, Old: leikr "game, sport" (origin of English English: lark "play, joke, folly") and Old High German German, Old High (ca.750-1050);: leih "play, song, melody." Ultimately, the word descends from Proto-Germanic Germanic languages: *laikaz. Old English English, Old (ca.450-1100);: lícian ("to please", Modern English English: [[:wikt:like|like]]) is from the same root. In modern English, the noun has been reintroduced through the cognate Swedish Swedish: lek as a specialist term referring to mating behavior.
Thus, the suffix originates as a second member in nominal compounds, and referred to "actions or proceedings, practice, ritual" identical with the noun English, Old (ca.450-1100);: [[:wikt:lác|lác]] "play, sport, performance" (obsolete Modern English English: [[:wikt:lake|lake]] "fun, sport, glee", obsolete or dialectal Modern German German: leich).
Only found in Old English is the meaning of '(religious) offering, sacrifice, human sacrifice,' in Beowulf 1583f. of the Danes killed by Grendel, in Lambeth Homilies of the sacrifice of Christ. In the Anglo-Saxon Gospel in Matthew 8:4 for Greek, Modern (1453-);: δωρον, denoting an offering according to Mosaic law. In the 13th century it appears to lose its religious connotations and denotes gifts more generally, of the offerings of the Three Magi (Ancrene Riwle 152,), and in Genesis and Exodus (1798) of the gifts sent by Jacob to Esau. From the 14th century, under the influence of English, Middle (1100-1500);: to lake "to move quickly, to leap, to fight", the noun comes to mean "fun, sport" exclusively. In this meaning, it survives into the 19th century in North English dialect in the compound English: lake-lass "female playmate."
The word is also a compound member in given names, in Sigelac, Hygelac and Oslac.
Oslac has Scandinavian and continental cognates, Asleikr and Ansleih. Based on this, Koegel (1894) assumes that the term Germanic languages: *ansu-laikaz may go back to Common Germanic times, denoting a German: Leich für die Götter, a hymn, dance or play for the gods in early Germanic paganism. Grimm (s.v. German: Leich) compares the meaning of Greek Greek, Modern (1453-);: χορος, denoting first the ceremonial procession to the sacrifice, but also ritual dance and hymns pertaining to religious ritual.
Hermann (1928) identifies as such Germanic languages: *ansulaikaz the hymns sung by the Germans to their god of war mentioned by Tacitus and the victory songs of the Batavi mercenaries serving under Gaius Julius Civilis after the victory over Quintus Petillius Cerialis in the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD, and also the "abominable song" to Wodan sung by the Lombards at their victory celebration in 579. The sacrificial animal was a goat, around whose head the Lombards danced in a circle while singing their victory hymn. As their Christian prisoners refused to "adore the goat", they were all killed (Hermann presumes) as an offering to Wodan.