ley

Forms

ley f (plural leyes)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote lei and lee;^[2] lee in the Libro de Alexandre stands between Latin and ley, which Berceo and other 13th-century texts usually count as two syllables.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ley, inherited from Latin lēx (“law”).^[3][4][5][1] The same Latin word is Portuguese lei, Galician lei, Asturian llei, Catalan llei, Occitan lei, French loi, Italian legge and Romanian lege.^[6][1][7]

The sense “standard of fineness of a precious metal” has a separate source, as Corominas explains: it adapts French aloi, from aleiier (“to alloy”), whose first syllable was taken for the French feminine article.^[8][9]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *lēg-, a root noun that de Vaan interprets as a “collection” of rules; Oscan ligud is the Oscan cognate.^[10][11] The usual etymology derives it from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather”), the root of legō, but de Vaan doubts that the noun already existed in Proto-Indo-European, and Palmer and Fortson prefer *legʰ- (“to lie”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to a charter of 1158.^[3][4] The Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) has the oath ¡Par mi lei, nos somos errados! “By my faith, we are wrong!”, and in the Cortes of León of 1208 the king says fice aquesta ley “I made this law”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish often used ley for a religion (Berceo, Juan Manuel), and figuratively for a manner, as in Berceo's a lei de ladrón “like a thief”; this sense underlies the dialectal Basque legez “like”.^[3] Alfonso X's legal prose explains the word as a written teaching que liega a omne que non faga mal “that binds a man not to do evil”, and his Lapidario speaks of la ley de los moros.^[13] Covarrubias (1611) quoted Cicero's definition of law and the derivations from Latin words for choosing or for reading, since laws were read out in public.^[14]

Autoridades (1734) recorded the senses “loyalty” (a servant tiene ley to his master), the conformity of goods with the regulations, and the fineness of metal and coins.^[15] The Academy's 1884 edition put the law of nature, the constant rule of things, first.^[16] In Colombian underworld slang la ley is the police.^[17]

Timeline

• 1158 – first record, in a charter.^[3][4]
• c. 1180 – the Auto de los Reyes Magos swears par mi lei.^[12]
• 1208 – the Cortes of León use ley for a royal law.^[12]
• 1256–1300 – Alfonso X's legal prose defines the word.^[13]
• 1525 – oro de diversas leyes, gold of different fineness, in Panama.^[18]
• late 16th century – Corominas's first record of the metal sense, in Acosta.^[8]
• 1734 – Autoridades records the sense “loyalty”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin lex.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fixed rule that a natural phenomenon obeys; a law of nature.^[5][1]
2. Each of the relations between the elements of a phenomenon.^[5]
3. A precept laid down by the competent authority, commanding or forbidding something for the good of the governed; law as a body of such rules.^[5][1]
4. In a constitutional system, a measure passed by parliament and sanctioned by the head of State; a statute.^[5]
5. (religion) A religion, the worship of a god.^[5][1]
6. Loyalty, faithfulness, affection: Siempre le tuvo ley a su maestro.^[5]
7. The quality, weight or measure that goods must have by law.^[5]
8. The fineness of gold or silver in bars, jewellery or coins; the metal content of an ore.^[5]
9. (Colombia, slang) The police.^[17]

Related words

• leal
• legal
• legislar
• legítimo
• lindo
• legislador
• Latin lex
• French loi

Usage notes

Set phrases include de buena ley and de mala ley, fuera de la ley and con todas las de la ley.^[1] In the Canaries guardarle ley a alguien means to show someone gratitude and respect.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ley
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 639
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ley
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. ley
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 135
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 140
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alear
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ley
13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. ley
14. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1074
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 394
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 641
17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. ley
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. ley
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. ley