leira

Cognate of Portuguese leira and of Asturian lleira (“strip of land”). From Old Galician and Old Portuguese leira, documented in local Medieval Latin as larea and laria since the 9th century.[1] 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.[2]

• IPA^(key): /ˈlejɾa̝/

leira f (plural leiras)

1. field; a strip of cultivable land
   • 1277, M. Lucas Alvarez & P. P. Lucas Domínguez (eds.), 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

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈlejɾa̝/

leira f (plural leiras)

1. furrow

• enleirar

• “leira” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006-2012.
• “leira” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “leira” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “leira” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “leira” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

• leiren

leira m or f

1. definite feminine singular of leire

leira f

1. definite singular of leire

leira f

1. muddy shore, mud-flat

• Norwegian Nynorsk: leire

• leira in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

From Old Portuguese leira, from Latin glarea.

Cognate with Galician leira and Spanish llera.

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈlɐj.ɾɐ/, /ˈlej.ɾɐ/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈlej.ɾa/, /ˈlej.ɾɐ/
• Hyphenation: lei‧ra

leira f (plural leiras)

1. furrow
2. a strip of cultivated land