among the Calmuc Tartars, the name of their high-priest or sovereign pontiff; formerly only the deputy of the delai-lama or high-priest of the Tartars, but at present independent on him.

L.

L, A semi-vowel; or liquid, making the eleventh letter of the alphabet.

It was derived from the old Hebrew Lamed, or Greek Lambda λ. It is founded by intercepting the breath between the top of the tongue and forepart of the palate, with the mouth open; and makes a sweet sound, with something of an aspiration; and therefore the Britons and Spaniards usually doubled it, or added an h to it, in the beginning of words, as in llan, or llan, a temple, sounding nearly like β, &c. In English words of one syllable it is doubled at the end, as tell, bell, knell, &c. but in words of more syllables than one it is single at the end, as evil, general, constitutional, &c. It is placed after most of the consonants in the beginning of words and syllables, as black, glare, ad-les, ca-gle, &c. but before none. Its sound is clear in Abel, but obscure in able, &c.

As a numeral letter, L denotes 50; and with a dash over it, thus, L, 50000. Used as an abbreviation, L stands for Lucius; and L. L. S. for a sellece. See SESTERC.