lax / laks/ • adj. 1. not sufficiently strict or severe: lax security arrangements at the airport he'd been a bit lax about discipline in school lately. ∎  careless: why do software developers do little more than parrot their equally lax competitors?2. (of the limbs or muscles) relaxed. ∎  (of the bowels) loose. ∎ Phonet. (of a speech sound, esp. a vowel) pronounced with the vocal muscles relaxed. The opposite of tense¹ .DERIVATIVES: lax·i·ty / ˈlaksətē/ n. lax·ly adv.lax·ness n.

lax1 salmon. OE. læx (WS. leax) = LG. las, OHG. lahs (G. lachs), ON. lax :- Gmc *laχs-, rel. to Lith. la⋅iŝà, Russ. losós; cf. Toch. laks fish. The OE. word appears to have died out, and the Scand. word, adopted in XIII, continued in local use till XVII.

lax2 (of the bowels) loose XIV; slack, not strict XV. — L. laxus loose; see SLACK1.
So laxative relaxing. XIV. —(O)F. or late (medical) L. laxity XVI. — F. or L.

lax Scandinavian name for salmon; see also gravadlax; lox.