lift

Lift comes from Middle English liften, borrowed from Old Norse lypta, meaning "to lift" or literally "to raise in the air." That traces back to Proto-Germanic *luftijaną, tied to *luftuz, meaning "roof" or "air."

Beyond raising objects, lift picked up the specific mechanical sense — a device for vertical transport — by 1851. There's also a slangier sense, "to steal," possibly connected to a Gothic word for "thief," or perhaps just from the plain image of lifting an item off a surface.

Lift shares roots with the Old English word lyft, meaning "air," which also survives in loft — both stem from the same Proto-Germanic idea of air or roof overhead.