-lock, suffix
in mod. Eng. occurring only in wedlock, represents OE. -lác, the second element of numerous compounds (usually neuter: rarely masc.) in which the first element is a n. OE. had about a dozen of these compounds (those in which -lác means ‘offering’, lake n.1, are not counted); in all these the second element may be rendered ‘actions or proceedings, practice’, as br{yacu}dlác nuptials, beadolác, feohtlác, heaðolác warfare, hǽmedlác, wiflác carnal intercourse, réaflác robbery, wedlác pledge-giving, also espousals, nuptials, w{iacu}telác punishment, wróhtlác calumny. The -lác of these compounds should probably be identified with lác play, sport, lake n.2; the words meaning ‘warfare’, which may have been the earliest examples of this use, may be compared with the synonymous compounds in -pleᵹa play. Of the OE. compounds of lác three (br{yacu}dlác, feohtlác, réaflác) survived into early ME., and wedlác still survives with altered meaning. In ME. the suffix was sometimes assimilated in form to the etymologically equivalent but functionally distinct Scandinavian -laik. A few examples, not recorded in OE., appear in early ME.: dweomerlak (demerlayk), ferlac, shendlac, treulac, wohlac (cf. wouhleche), the last from a vb.-stem, woȝ- to woo; but none of these survived later than the 14th century.