log
n. countablen. a thick piece of wood that has been cut from a tree. It can also mean a written record of what happens during a trip or a period of time.
n. a bulky segment of a felled tree trunk or a primary branch; also, a systematic record of events, observations, or data over a specific duration.
He threw another log onto the fire to keep the room warm.
The ship's captain keeps a detailed log of the vessel's position and weather conditions every four hours.
While the fireplace was stacked with seasoned oak logs, the digital log of the server room indicated a suspicious spike in traffic from an unknown IP address.
From Middle English logge, logg (first recorded in Anglo-Latin as loggum), of uncertain origin, but probably from Old Norse lóg, lág (“felled tree, log”), derived from Old Norse liggja (“to lie”). If so, then cognate with Norwegian låg (“fallen tree”), Dutch loog (“wood, timber, lumber”). Alternatively, directly from Norwegian låg (“fallen tree”), which could have been borrowed through the Norwegian timber trade. However the Old Norse/Middle Norwegian vowel is long while Middle English vowel is short.
Clipping of logbook, itself from log (etymology 1) + book, from a wooden float (chip log) used to measure speed.
Ellipsis of log out, itself from Etymology 2.
From Hebrew לֹג.
A clipping of logarithm.
In its record-keeping sense, it is often used with the verb 'keep' or 'maintain'.