leira

See also: Leira

Galician

Leiras by a Galician village

Etymology 1

Cognate of Portuguese leira and of Asturian lleira (“strip of land”). From Old Galician-Portuguese leira, documented in local Medieval Latin as larea and laria since the 9th century. From a pre-Roman substrate of Iberia, from Proto-Celtic *ɸlāryā, a derivative from Proto-Celtic *ɸlārom (“floor”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂ros (“flat”), from *pleh₂- (“to be flat”). Cognate of Welsh llawr (“floor”), of English floor, and of Luxembourgish Flouer (“farmland”).

Josep Coromines discarded other proposed etymons:

• Latin glārea (“gravel”), the etymon of Spanish glera (“land with gravel or sand”) and of Asturian llera (“idem”), because of the improbable semantic evolution implied;
• Agglutination of the article + ārea: unlikely in the Galician-Portuguese linguistic area, where the article lost the lateral consonant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlejɾa̝/

Noun

leira f (plural leiras)

1. field; a strip of cultivable land
   • 1277, M. Lucas Alvarez, P. P. Lucas Domínguez, editors, San Pedro de Ramirás. Un monasterio femenino en la Edad Media. Colección diplomática, Santiago: Caixa Galicia, page 411:

     damus e outorgamus a uos [...] Ia leyra derdade que abemus en Eires como departe pe-la leyra do casal de Cima de Villa en o qual mora Domingo Eanes, e da outra parte pe-los marcos que y estan chantados, e da outra parte pe-la careyra, e da outra parte pe-la pedra que esta en fondo desta leira; conuen a saber que vos fazades esta leira Ia cassa pera lagar e non fazades en ela outra casa nenuna nen poombal, nen tolades o carril da uila

     we give and grant you a field that we have in Eires, as it departs from the field that belongs to the farm of Cimadevila where Domigo Eanes lives, in the other side by the boundary stones that are thrusted there, in the other side by the road, and in the other side by the rock that is at the end of this field; and you shall build in this field a winery, but you should not build there any other house or dovecote, nor should you occupy the road to the village

Derived terms

• leirado
• Leirado
• leirallo
• Leiras
• leirato
• leiriñas
• leiro

Etymology 2

Transference of meaning from Latin līra (“furrow, ridge”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlejɾa̝/

Noun

leira f (plural leiras)

1. furrow

Derived terms

• enleirar

References

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “leira”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “leira”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “leira”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “leira”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “leira”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• leiren

Noun

leira m or f

1. definite feminine singular of leire

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

leira f

1. definite singular of leire

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *lai-zō, related to *līmaz (“glue, lime”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyH- (“to smear”) or *(s)ley-mo- (“slime”), with similar words including English loam, Latin limus, and German Leim (“paste, glue”).

Noun

leira f

1. muddy shore, mud-flat

Declension

  Declension of leira (weak ōn-stem)

feminine	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	leira	leiran	leirur	leirurnar
accusative	leiru	leiruna	leirur	leirurnar
dative	leiru	leirunni	leirum	leirunum
genitive	leiru	leirunnar	leirna	leirnanna

Descendants

• Norwegian Nynorsk: leire

References

• “leira”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Guus Kroonen (2013) “lima”, in Alexander Lubotsky, editor, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 338
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) “662-64”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, pages 662-64

Portuguese

Etymology

Cognate with Galician leira and Spanish llera.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈle(j).ɾɐ/ [ˈle(ɪ̯).ɾɐ]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈle(j).ɾɐ/ [ˈle(ɪ̯).ɾɐ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈle(j).ɾa/ [ˈle(ɪ̯).ɾa]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈlɐj.ɾɐ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈlɐj.ɾɐ/
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈlej.ɾɐ/
  • (Central Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈlej.ɾɐ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈle.ɾɐ/

• Rhymes: -ejɾɐ, (Portugal) -ɐjɾɐ
• Hyphenation: lei‧ra

Noun

leira f (plural leiras)

1. furrow
2. a strip of cultivated land