liebre

Forms

liebre f (plural liebres)^[1] Old Spanish has liebre and also lebre (Fuero de Valfermoso, 1189) and lieure.^[2] Asturian says llebre or lliebre, and the Pyrenean dialects liepre.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish liebre, inherited from Latin leporem (“hare”), the accusative of the Latin noun.^[1][3][5][6] The Latin word was masculine; it became feminine in Spanish, as in most of the Romance languages, but not in Romanian, Sardinian, some Italian dialects or French.^[3] The same Latin word is Portuguese lebre, Galician lebre, Asturian llebre, Catalan llebre, French lièvre, Italian lepre and Romanian iepure.^[7][4]

The Latin word is not of Indo-European origin.^[8][1] Pliny says that Ancient Greek λεβηρίς (lebērís, “rabbit”) was a word of Massilia, and this has led to the view that the Latin word was borrowed from Iberian; de Vaan thinks this possible but not certain, since the word could also come from a substrate in Italy itself.^[8][1] Varro already took it for a Sicilian word.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in the Fuero de Madrid (dated 1158–1202, in a 13th-century manuscript), a mainly Latin text with Romance words: Qui coneios uel liebres o perdizes comparare “whoever buys rabbits or hares or partridges”.^[2][11] Corominas's first record is the Calila e Dimna of 1251.^[3][5] In these texts the word names the animal as game.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Hares appear among the game in the 13th-century fueros, and the Libro de Alexandre already uses the word figuratively of an enemy: non sabe esta liebre con quál galgo trebeja “this hare does not know which greyhound it is playing with”.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 called the hare a timid animal and said that cowards are called hares, as the Latins called effeminate men.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades gave that sense too, and the constellation Lepus.^[13] The proverbial vender gato por liebre “to sell a cat for a hare”, that is to cheat, is recorded in Santo Domingo in 1551.^[14][1]

Modern senses include the pacesetter in middle- and long-distance races.^[6][1] In Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador a liebre is a clever, crafty person, and in Chile the word once named a small bus.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1158–1202 – liebres in the Fuero de Madrid.^[2][11]
• 1189 – the form lebre in the Fuero de Valfermoso.^[2]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre uses the word figuratively of an enemy.^[11]
• 1251 – liebre in the Calila e Dimna, Corominas's first record.^[3][5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija enters liebre with Latin lepus, and lebrel “greyhound”, lebrastilla “leveret” and lebruno.^[17][5][3]
• 1532 – the word is recorded in Mexico.^[14]
• 1535 – alebrestarse “to crouch like a hare”.^[5][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the use of the word for cowards.^[12]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the sense “coward” and lebrastón “old hare; sly man”.^[13][5]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin lepus, leporis.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. hare: a lagomorph like the rabbit but with longer ears and legs, a very fast runner whose meat is prized: Una liebre saltó de entre los matorrales.^[6][1]
2. (athletics) A pacesetter: a runner who leads a middle- or long-distance race to set its pace.^[6][1]
3. (colloquial, dated) A timid, cowardly man.^[6][16]
4. (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador) A clever, crafty person.^[6][15]
5. (Chile, obsolete) A small bus on a fixed route.^[15][16]

Word family

• lebrasto
• lebrato
• alebrarse
• lebruno
• lebrastón
• alebrestarse

Related words

• lebrero
• leporino
• Latin lepus
• Portuguese lebre

Usage notes

Liebre de mar or liebre marina is a sea slug, named for its ear-like tentacles.^[6][16] Set phrases include dar gato por liebre “to cheat, to pass off something worse”, levantar la liebre “to give a secret away” and donde menos se piensa salta la liebre, said of something that happens where nobody expected it.^[16][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. liebre
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 645
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3840
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. liebre
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. liebre
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4991
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. liebre
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1085
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 402
14. ^ a b 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. liebre
15. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. liebre
16. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. liebre
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 371
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 645