lete

lete is a core content word relating to coldness.

lete
Pronunciation	/ˈle.te/
Usage	2023: Core (99% ↗︎ )2022: Core (98%)
Book and era	nimi pu
Part of speech	Content word
Codepoint	󱤦 U+F1926

Etymology

The word lete is derived from Acadian French frette, meaning "cold".

Semantic space

The semantic space of lete includes cold, frozen, and uncooked things. The antonym of this word is seli, which describes heat.

telo li kama lete la ona li kama kiwen

telo li kama lete la ona li kama kiwen.

When water freezes (becomes cold), it becomes solid.

According to lipamanka's dictionary, lete is sometimes "used to describe… unprocessed ore."^{[better source needed…]}This claim needs references to better sources:
Primary source or explanation
(Mar 2024)

Latitude

Geographically, lete is sometimes used to describe places far from the equator. One example is ma Amelika lete for North America, contrasted with South America (ma Amelika seli) which crosses the equator. Using lete to mean "north" in all cases would be biased around the Northern Hemisphere and may require proper context in order to be understood. This sense of lete is first attested in 2007.

pu

In the "Official Toki Pona Dictionary" section, the book Toki Pona: The Language of Good defines lete as:

ADJECTIVE  cold, cool; uncooked, raw

ku

For Toki Pona Dictionary, respondents in ma pona pi toki pona translated these English words as lete:

cold⁵81–100% of respondents, raw³41–60% of respondents, frozen³41–60% of respondents, freeze²21–40% of respondents, cool²21–40% of respondents

sitelen pona

The sitelen pona glyph for lete (󱤦) is an asterisk representing a simple snowflake. The rotation of the glyph is unimportant.

sitelen sitelen

This section is empty. You can help us by adding to it.

Further

• "lete" on lipu Linku
• "lete" on lipu Wikipesija
• "lete" on English Wiktionary