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Lea

//liː// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A female given name from Hebrew, form of Leah.
  2. 2
    An English surname from Middle English, a variant of Lee.
  3. 3
    A river in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex and Greater London, England, also called the Lee, which flows into the River Thames at Poplar.
  4. 4
    A village in Dethick, Lea and Holloway parish, Amber Valley borough, Derbyshire, England (OS grid ref SK3257).
  5. 5
    A village and civil parish in south-east Herefordshire, England (OS grid ref SO6521).
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  1. 6
    A village and civil parish in the City of Preston, Lancashire, England (OS grid ref SD4930).
  2. 7
    A village and civil parish in West Lindsey district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref SK8286).
  3. 8
    A village in Lea and Cleverton parish, north Wiltshire, England (OS grid ref ST9586).
  4. 9
    A former civil parish in Cheshire East, Cheshire, England, merged into Doddington and District civil parish in 2023.
Noun
  1. 1
    An open field, meadow, pasture.

    "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me."

  2. 2
    Any of several measures of yarn; for linen, 300 yards (275 m); for cotton, 120 yards (110 m).
  3. 3
    Initialism of law enforcement agency. US, abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
  4. 4
    a field covered with grass or herbage and suitable for grazing by livestock wordnet
  5. 5
    A set of warp threads carried by a loop of the heddle.
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  1. 6
    Initialism of local education authority. England, Wales, abbreviation, alt-of, historical, initialism
  2. 7
    a unit of length of thread or yarn wordnet
  3. 8
    Initialism of local electoral area. Ireland, abbreviation, alt-of, initialism

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English legh, lege, lei (“clearing, open ground”), from Old English lēah (“clearing in a forest”) from Proto-West Germanic *lauh (“meadow”), from Proto-Germanic *lauhaz (“meadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *lówkos (“field, meadow”). Akin to Old Frisian lāch (“meadow”), Old Saxon lōh (“forest, grove”) (Middle Dutch loo (“forest, thicket”); Dutch -lo (“in placenames”)), Old High German lōh (“covered clearing, low bushes”), Old Norse lō (“clearing, meadow”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English le, lee, ley, of uncertain origin. Compare Old French lier (“to bind”), Old French laisse (“leash, cord”), Old French lïace, lïaz (“bundle”).

Etymology 3

From Old English lēa, the dative case of lēah (“meadow”).

Etymology 4

From Old English Lyġe.

See also for "lea"

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