delay: [13] English acquired delay from Old French delaier, a compound verb formed from the prefix de- ‘off’ and laier ‘leave’. This verb, which also crops up in English relay, appears to have been a variant of laissier (source of English lease), which came from Latin laxāre ‘slacken, undo’. This in turn was derived from the adjective laxus ‘loose’. => lax, lease, relay
