lite
[lahyt]Informal.
- noting a commercial product that is low in calories or low in any substance considered undesirable, as compared with a product of the same type: used especially in labeling or advertising commercial products: lite beer.
- noting a version that is comparatively less extreme, profound, advanced, etc., than the typical version (often used postpositively): The film glossed over the dangers of the experiment with a science-lite explanation. The lite version of the app is available for mobile download.
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Origin of lite
First recorded in 1965–70; an informal, simplified spelling of light2
-lite
- a combining form used in the names of minerals or fossils: aerolite; chrysolite.
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Also -lyte2.
Compare -lith.
Origin of -lite
< French, simplified form of -lithe < Greek líthos stone; similarly German -lit, earlier -lith
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for lite
Contemporary Examples
Ngai associates it with other "lite" aesthetic categories promulgated by postwar consumer culture: quaint, wacky, quirky, cool.
Even The Wall Street Journal weighed in, describing LeMieux as nothing more than “Charlie Crist lite.”
Historical Examples
Why should not these members of the lite have exceptional enjoyment?
Ten TalesFranois Coppe
This lite of which the University is thus robbed must be got back.
The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 6 (of 6)Hippolyte A. Taine
The choicest of the lite were there,—ladies in demi-toilet and bonneted.
Music and Some Highly Musical PeopleJames M. Trotter
The elect of God, the lite of all the centuries, of whom the world was not worthy.
Talks To FarmersCharles Haddon Spurgeon
The lite of intelligence and fashion honored us with their presence.
AloneMarion Harland
lite
- (of food and drink) containing few calories or little alcohol or fat
- denoting a more restrained or less extreme version of a person or thingreggae lite
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Word Origin
C20: variant spelling of light ²
-lite
- (in names of minerals) stonechrysolite Compare -lith
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Word Origin
from French -lite or -lithe, from Greek lithos stone
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for lite
adj.
alternative spelling of light (adj.1), by 1962. Used from at least 1917 in product names, often as a variation of light (n.).
The word Adjusto-Lite for portable electric lamps was opposed by the user of a trade mark Auto-lite registered before the date of use claimed by the applicant. ["The Trade-Mark Reporter," 1922]
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-lite
word-forming element meaning "stone," from French -lite, variant of -lithe, from Greek lithos "stone" (see litho-).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper