lira

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈliː.ra]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈliː.ra]^[1]

Forms

līra f (genitive līrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *loisā-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *lois-h₂- (“furrow, track”).^[2][1]

Cognate with Old Prussian lyso (“field bed”), Old Church Slavonic лѣха (lěxa, “field bed, furrow”) and Old High German leisa (“track”),^[2][3] and perhaps with the month name Oscan luisarifs.^[2] The same root gives English learn, with a basic sense “to follow a track”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Columella (1st century AD) onwards,^[2][5] who says farmers call lirae the ridges between two wide furrows that give the grain a dry bed.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It was a farming word for the ridge of earth thrown up between two furrows, and also the furrow itself.^[3][7][1] An archaic form lera is reported by Nonius.^[7]

Its derivative dēlīrō, literally “to go off the furrow”, meant “to be mad”, and gave English delirium.^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses its derivative delirare, “to be mad”.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of the ridges between furrows.^[6][5]
• 1590s – English delirium comes from its derivative.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The ridge between two furrows.^[3][1]
2. A furrow.^[7][1]

Word family

• līrātim
• līrō
• dēlīrāmentum
• dēlīrātiō
• dēlīritās
• dēlīrō
• dēlīrus
• līrātus

Related words

• English delirium
• English learn

Usage notes

Döderlein says lira could mean either the ridge, properly porca, or the furrow, properly sulcus.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper