Word of the day: lukewarm

The directions that come with a Waterpik say to use lukewarm water. Whence lukewarm ?

I made up a preposterous etymology:

There once was an innkeeper named Luke, generous with his board but stingy with his hearth. (Go figure.) When travelers stopped at Luke’s inn of a cold night and stood by the hearth to warm themselves, they found that the feebly glowing embers did little to take away their chill. These poor travelers were said to be lukewarm.

The truth is more prosaic. Merriam-Webster, which traces lukewarm to the fourteenth century, is more up-to-date than the OED for this word:

Middle English, from luke lukewarm + warm; probably akin to Old High German lāo lukewarm — more at LEE.

As a noun, lee means “protecting shelter“ or “the side (as of a ship) or area that is sheltered from the wind.” As an adjective, “of, relating to, or being the side sheltered from the wind,” “facing in the direction of motion of an overriding glacier → used especially of a hillside.” The word predates the twelfth century. Its origin:

Middle English, from Old English hlēo; perhaps akin to Old High German lāo lukewarm, Latin calēre to be warm.

As Gertrude Stein might have written, Lukewarm is luke and warm and luke is warm.

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March 8: Ernie Kovacs made a faucet. Thanks, Kevin.