meia
Portuguese

meia
Alternative forms
- meya (obsolete)
Etymology 1
From Old Portuguese meya, from Latin media, feminine of medius (“middle; half”), from Proto-Indo-European *medʰyo- (“between”).
Descendants
- Kadiwéu: meeya
Adverb
meia
Usage notes
- The word meia, as an adverb, appears in vulgar speech because of a confusion about the role of meio. In this case, whenever meio, as an adverb, lies right before a feminine adjective, it is confused for an adjective as well, hence hypercorrected into the feminine declension meia. In standard speech, however, Portuguese adverbs are never inflected by grammatical gender.
Noun
meia f (plural meias)
- sock (covering for the foot; originally short form of meia-calça)
- (Brazil) a ticket sold for half its normal price, as required by law, for students and children (short form of meia-entrada)
- (Portugal) obsolete unit of measure for liquids, equivalent to six pints
- (when reading a time) half past (short form of meia hora)
- O evento termina às três e meia.
- The event ends at half past three.
- O evento termina às três e meia.
meia m, f (plural meias)
Synonyms
- (sock): carpim (Rio Grande do Sul), peúga (Portugal)
- (ticket sold for half its normal price): meia-entrada
- (midfielder): meio-campista
Derived terms
- meia elástica
Numeral
meia
Synonyms
- meia-dúzia, seis
Etymology 2
Inflected form of mear (“to half”).
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.