lesto

Uncertain. Possibly from a slang expression. Compare Portuguese lesto (“fast, agile”), Spanish listo and Catalan llest.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛ.sto/
• Rhymes: -ɛsto
• Hyphenation: lè‧sto

lesto (feminine lesta, masculine plural lesti, feminine plural leste)

1. quick, fast

   Camminava lesto verso casa. ― He was walking home fast.

• → French: leste

• lesto in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• solte, stelo, stole, tolse

Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *listiz; compare Old High German and Old Norse lista, English list, Italian lesto and Spanish listo. Alternatively, possibly from a Vulgar Latin *lextus or *lestus, reduced from *lexitus, as an alteration of Latin lēctus (“chosen; read”), participle of legō.

lesto (feminine lesta, masculine plural lestos, feminine plural lestas)

1. agile

   Synonyms: ágil, desembaraçado, rápido

• “lesto” in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2024.
• “lesto” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

An uncertain formation, but ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie (down), lay; resting place”), whence lyäk-. Cognate with Tocharian A lyäk. Also related to lest (“heap, pile”).

lesto

1. nest (of a bird), den (of an animal), lair

• Adams, Douglas Q. (2013) “lesto”, in A Dictionary of Tocharian B: Revised and Greatly Enlarged (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 10), Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 609