Etymologically
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lira

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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

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