lira

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian lira (“pound”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which comes, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, Barnhart and Hoad, through Old Occitan liura,^[4][5][7][8] from Latin lībra (“pound (unit of weight); balance”).^{[2][3][4][5][9]} The OED calls the Italian word a contracted form of the Latin.^[2] The same Latin word gave French livre and Italian libbra,^[7][10] and the English word Libra;^[3][6] Barnhart also refers to liter.^[5] The names of the Turkish, Israeli and Maltese currency units are Turkish lira, Modern Hebrew לִירָה (lirá) and Maltese lira, each taken from the Italian word,^[11][1] and English partly took the word through them.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

An Italian silver coin, and the unit of money in Italy: 1617, in Fynes Moryson's Itinerary.^[2][11][5] Etymonline gives the 1610s,^[3] and Dictionary.com 1610–20.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the Italian coin and money of account,^[2] and stayed the name of Italy's currency until the euro replaced it in 2002.^[13][9][10] From 1871 it was also used of the Turkish unit,^[2][11] which Collins notes is also called a pound and is divided into 100 kuruş.^[13] Merriam-Webster dates the Israeli lira to about 1946 and the Maltese to about 1985;^[11] the Maltese lira, divided into 100 cents, was replaced by the euro in 2008.^[13] San Marino and the Vatican City also used the lira until 2002,^[13][9] and Webster's Third applied the word to the Syrian pound.^[14] Weekley, in 1921, glossed the Italian coin as worth a franc, comparing the French livre, also used for the franc.^[15]

Timeline

• 1617 – an Italian silver coin; the unit of money of Italy.^[2][11][5]
• 1871 – the unit of money of Turkey.^[2][11]
• c. 1946 – the unit of money of Israel.^[11]
• c. 1985 – the unit of money of Malta.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The basic unit of currency of Turkey, divided into 100 kuruş.^[13][9][16]
2. The former basic unit of currency of Italy, San Marino and the Vatican City, replaced by the euro in 2002; also a coin or note worth one lira.^[13][9][10]
3. The former basic unit of currency of Malta, replaced by the euro in 2008.^[13][16]
4. The former unit of currency of Israel.^[11][1]
5. A name for the pound of Syria and Lebanon.^[14][1]

Related words

• libra
• Libra
• livre
• liter

Usage notes

The plural of the Italian lira is lire, also liras;^[9][13][10] for the Turkish lira Merriam-Webster gives liras first.^[9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also has two rarer words spelled lira: an old bowed stringed instrument, from the Italian word for lyre, and in zoology a fine ridge like a thread on some shells (first known use 1871), from the Latin word for a furrow.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers