lebre

Forms

lebre f (plural lebres, masculine lebrão, masculine plural lebrões)^[1] The 13th century writes lebor (and lebore in the Miragres de Santiago), the 14th lebre, and the 15th also lebree.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lepus (“hare”), from the accusative form, written Old Galician-Portuguese lebor in the oldest texts and Old Galician-Portuguese lebre from the 14th century.^[2][4][1][3] The unstressed vowel of the second syllable was lost, and the resulting group /pr/ became /br/.^[5] The Latin noun was masculine, though feminine in Priscian, and it became feminine in nearly all the Romance languages, except Romanian, Sardinian and some Italian dialects.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is Galician lebre, Spanish liebre, Catalan llebre, Occitan lèbre, French lièvre, Italian lepre and Romanian iepure.^[8][1] The Spanish word is recorded from 1251.^[9]

De Vaan considers the Latin noun not Indo-European.^[10] Pliny says that Ancient Greek λεβηρίς (lebērís, “rabbit”) is a word of Massilia, which has suggested an Iberian loan in Latin.^[10] De Vaan finds that possible but not certain, as the word could also come from a substrate in Italy itself.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place called Lebor is recorded in a charter of 1097 in the Portugaliae Monumenta Historica.^[3] The first record of the noun is a cantiga of Alfonso X about a wretched little greyhound que hũa lebor de mil / non filhasse “that would not catch one hare in a thousand”.^[3] The Miragres de Santiago list hũa grua ou hũa lebore “a crane or a hare”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the Crónica Geral describes a man mederoso tal com̃o a lebre “as timid as the hare”, and the falconry books of Pero Menino and others treat the hare as quarry for falcons and greyhounds.^[3] Lorenzo shows that the masculine lebre Machado cites from the 16th century is really lebrel.^[3]

Bluteau (1712–1728) describes the animal at length, its long upright ears, its keen hearing and its timidity.^[11] Morais (1813) adds the saying os roncas todos são lebres “braggarts are all hares”, a venomous fish, a southern constellation, and the nautical lebres, blocks through which certain ropes pass.^[12] The figurative derribar a lebre diante de alguém meant to spoil what another had almost achieved.^[12][13] In Brazil the name was given to the tapiti, a native rabbit.^[2][14] In southern Brazil and the Plate the European hare, brought to Argentina in the 19th century, spread over the pampas as a pest of crops.^[15]

Timeline

• 1097 – the place name Lebor in a Latin charter.^[3]
• 13th century – lebor in a cantiga of Alfonso X.^[3][2]
• 14th century – lebre in the Crónica Geral and the falconry books.^[3][4]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin lepus and the diminutive lepusculus.^[17]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau describes the animal.^[11]
• 1813 – Morais adds the fish, the constellation and the nautical sense.^[12]
• 1881 – first record of the masculine lebrão.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hare: a mammal of the genus Lepus, related to the rabbit but larger and faster, with long ears and long hind legs.^[2][1][18]
2. A dish made with hare meat.^[2][19]
3. (Brazil) The tapiti, a native rabbit.^[2][14]
4. (astronomy, capitalised) The southern constellation Lepus.^[2][20]
5. (nautical, dated) A block made of two pulley shells joined at their bases, through which certain ropes pass.^[2][19]
6. (Portugal) The mechanical lure shaped like a hare in greyhound racing.^[21]

Word family

• lebrão

Related words

• lebrel
• leporino
• Latin lepus
• Galician lebre
• Spanish liebre

Usage notes

The male is lebrão.^[1][4] The phrase andar à lebre means “to be penniless”.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lebre
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. lebre
4. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lebre
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 293
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lebre
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 645
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4991
9. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. liebre
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. lepus
11. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lebre
12. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 211
13. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 1276
14. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. lebre
15. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. lebre
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. lebre
17. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lebre
18. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lebre
19. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. lebre
20. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. lebre
21. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5616