| 释义 |
▪ I. lea, n.1|liː|
Forms: 1 léah, léa, léaᵹ, léᵹ, 4 leȝ, 5– 6 (9) lee, 5–7 leye, 5 lie, legh, 5–6 le, 6 lighe, laie, 6–7 laye; 5–7 lay, 5–9 ley, 6– lea.
[OE. léa(h masc. (genitive léas, léaᵹes, nom. pl. léas), and léah fem. (genitive léaᵹe), app. meaning a tract of cultivated or cultivable land; in spite of the difference of sense, the words appear to be etymologically identical with OHG. lôh neut. or masc., used to render L. lūcus grove (MHG. lôh, lôch low brushwood, clearing overgrown with small shrubs, mod.Ger. dial. loh), and perh. with Flem. -loo in place-names, as Waterloo; the pre-Teut. type *louqo- occurs also in L. lūcus grove, and Lith. laukas meadow and arable land, as opposed to wood; the root is supposed by some scholars to be *leuq- to shine (whence L. lūcēre, Eng. light n., etc.; for the sense cf. clearing); others have suggested *leu- to loosen (Gr. λύειν, L. so-lv-ĕre).
The sense has been influenced by confusion with lease n.1 (OE. lǽs), which seems often to have been mistaken for a plural, and also with lea n.2]
A tract of open ground, either meadow, pasture, or arable land. After OE. chiefly found (exc. where it is the proper name of a particular piece of ground) in poetical or rhetorical use, ordinarily applied to grass land.
805in Birch Cartul. Sax. (1885) I. 450 Campus armentorum id est hriðra leah. 944Ibid. (1887) II. 540 Þonne ᵹeuðe ic ælfwine & Beorhtulfe þæs leas & þæs hammes be norðan þære lytlan dic. c1430Hymns Virg. (1867) 95 Bi a forest as y gan walke With-out a paleys in a leye. c1470Golagros & Gaw. 312 Thai plantit doun ane pailyeoun, vpone ane plane lee. c1470Henryson Fables viii. 1793 in Anglia IX. 458 Luik to the lint that growis on yone le. 1513Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 183 In lyssouris and on leys litill lammis Full tait and trig socht bletand to thar dammis. 1526Skelton Magnyf. 2093, I garde her gaspe, I garde her gle, With, daunce on the le, the le! 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. (1858) I. 627 Eugenius vpoune ane lustie le Dewydit hes his ost in battellis thre. a1541Wyatt in Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 90 In lusty leas at libertie I walke. 1586Durham Depos. (Surtees) 320, I have bene yonder in the lighes. 1588Spenser Virg. Gnat 110 Flowres varietie With sundrie colours paints the sprinckled lay. 1610Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 60 Ceres, most bounteous Lady, thy rich Leas Of Wheate, Rye, Barley, Fetches, Oates and Pease. 1634Milton Comus 965 Other trippings..With the mincing Dryades On the Lawns, and on the Leas. 1750Gray Elegy i, The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea. 1790Burns Elegy Capt. Henderson v, Mourn, little hare⁓bells o'er the lee. 1808Coleridge Three Graves iii. xxxiv, I saw young Edward by himself Stalk fast adown the lee. 1813Hogg Queen's Wake 221 Stern Tushilaw strode o'er the ley. 1849Longfellow Birds of Passage v, From the land of snow and sleet they seek a southern lea. 1850Tennyson In Mem. cxv, Now dance the lights on lawn and lea. 1851Kingsley Poems, Bad Squire 12 Where under the gloomy fir-woods One spot in the ley throve rank.
transf.1612Drayton Poly-olb. i. 23 Surging Neptunes leas.
¶ Used loosely for ‘ground’.
c1450Bk. Curtasye iii. 441 in Babees Bk., On legh vnsonken hit [a pallet] shalle be made.
b. Occurring in place-names.
778Charter of Cynewulf in O.E. Texts 427 To brad(an) leaᵹe, illo septo bradan leaᵹe. 862Charter of æðelberht ibid. 438 Bromleaᵹ—an norðan fram ceddan leaᵹe to langan leaᵹe. c1305St. Kenelm 342 in E.E.P. (1862) 56 Heo..To-ward wynchecumbe come riȝt vnder souþ leȝ. 1572Satir. Poems Reform. xxxi. 75 Nor quhen thay come in feir of weir Downe to the Gallow Ley. 1620in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 126 A ground..now commonly called S. Thomas' Leyes. 1844S. Bamford Life of Radical 39 We found ourselves traversing Hopwood ley.
▪ II. lea2, ley, lay|liː, leɪ|
Forms: 4 leyȝe, 4–7 leye, 5 lee, 6 laie, laye; 5– ley, lay, 6– lea (now chiefly poet.).
[Elliptical use of lea (ley, lay) adj.]
Land that has remained untilled for some time; arable land under grass; land ‘laid down’ for pasture, pasture-land, grass-land. clover-lay, ley: see clover n. 4.
1357Durham Halmote Rolls (Surtees) 19 Concelavit eos qui depast. fuerunt les leyes. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. viii. 5 Treuthe..bad holden hem at hom and heren heore leyȝes [B. vii. 5 leyes]. a1400–50Alexander 3561 Ai wald þe wise haue wale soile mare þan a wast lee. c1420Pallad. on Husb. vi. 30 Nowe feeldes fatte..Is good to plowe, and leyes vp to breke. c1440Promp. Parv. 285/1 Lay, londe not telyd. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §8 If thou haue any leys, to falowe or to sowe otes vpon, fyrste plowe them. 1573Tusser Husb. xxxv. (1878) 83 In Janiuere husband that poucheth the grotes will break vp his laie, or be sowing of otes. 1610W. Folkingham Art of Survey i. ii. 36 Rapes require a broken-vp lay and a rich layer. 1638Drummond of Hawthornden Irene Wks. (1711) 164 The husbandman..had turned his acres into leyes, his syths and ploughs into swords. 1713Lond. Gaz. No. 5143/4, 12 Acres of Meadow Ground, and 4 Leys and a half in St. Ives. 1765A. Dickson Treat. Agric. xii. (ed. 2) 259 In plowing lea, where the sward is tough. 1780A. Young Tour Irel. I. 28 He also spreads this manure on lays he intends breaking up. 1808Curwen Econ. Feeding Stock 12 Having destroyed all old lays, I have no other hay than clover. 1886Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Lay, ley, land which has been sown with annual or biennial grasses, and has come round to the time to be reploughed. 1892Lichfield Mercury 20 May 5/2 Good Ley for few Horses. 1932Discovery Feb. 61/1 Some progressive farmers are alternating four years of corn-growing with four years of temporary grass leys, on which bullocks and grass-land sheep are fed. 1957New Biol. XXIV. 42 In many areas it was not convenient to change arable land to leys of any considerable duration. 1962Listener 1 Feb. 214/1 The old permanent pastures are being replaced by temporary leys, with the plough ‘going all round the farm’. 1972Oxford Times 28 July 8 Don't be in a hurry to plough up and re-seed leys and permanent pastures.
b. attrib.
1523Fitzherb. Husb. §25 Shorte hey, and leye hey is good for shepe. 1634W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. (1865) 12 Being made into Hay, the Cattle eate it as well as it were Lea-hay and like it as well with it. 17..[Burns] There's News, Lasses iii, I hae as gude a craft rig As made o' yird and stane; And waly fa' the ley-crap For I maun till'd again. 1799J. Robertson Agric. Perth 222, I learned from a nobleman..that good ley hay is much sought after..for his Majesty's horses. 1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. (1807) I. 16 This is the best object in ploughing for a ley crop. 1813Vancouver Agric. Devon 142 Hacking is also performed where lay-wheat is sown immediately after the plough, and without a previous harrowing. 1948L. D. Stamp Land of Britain iv. 65 The length of time the grass is left down is usually determined by the farmer's own judgment..a common average being seven years. This is the system of ‘leys’ or ‘ley farming’—taking the plough round the farm.
▪ III. lea, n.3 north. dial.|liː|
Also 5, 9 ley, (6 pl. lease), 9 lae, leigh.
[a. ON. lé (Sw. lia, Da. lee).]
A scythe.
1483Cath. Angl. 211/1 A Ley, or a sythe, falx, falcicula. 1528in Rogers Agric. & Prices (1866) III. 567/2, 3 falces called leys. 1573Richmond. Wills (Surtees 1853) 242, vij lease, iijs. 1781J. Hutton Tour to Caves Gloss. 92 Lea, a sythe. 1855Morton Cycl. Agric. II. 724 Lea or Leigh (Yorks.), a scythe. 1877Holderness Gloss., Ley.
attrib.1855Robinson Whitby Gloss., Lea-sand, a fine sand brought from the eastern moorlands, to lay upon the strickle or sharpening tool for the lea. 1869Lonsdale Gloss., Lea-stone, a scythe-sharpener.
▪ IV. lea, n.4|liː|
Also 4–5 le(e, 7– lay, 9 ley.
[The gloss in the Promp. Parv. suggests that the word is a derivative of F. lier (:—L. ligāre) to bind, tie. But cf. lease n.4]
A measure of yarn of varying quantity: see quots.
1399Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 132 Et in xl lee luminon' [?] emp. pro præd. torchez 2s. 6d. [Note, A lee or lea contains 80 yards.] c1440Promp. Parv. 291/2 Lee of threde, ligatura. 1469Ripon Ch. Acts 139, x les de coverlett yarn. 1615Markham Eng. Housew. ii. v. (1668) 137 Some spinning by the pound, some by the lay, and some by the day. 1633N. Riding Rec. (1885) III. 348 A Huby spinster presented for stealing 10 leas of harden yarn. 1696Phillips (ed. 5) s.v., Every Lea of Yarn at Kidderminster shall contain 200 Threds reel'd on a Reel four yards about. a1704Locke in Fox Bourne Life (1876) II. xiii. 368 Twelve lays of good sound merchandable..linen yarn or thread, each lay containing 200 yards, and the whole 12 lays not weighing above 8 oz. avoirdupois. 1776Act 17 Geo. III, c. 11 §11 Every hank of..yarn shall..contain seven raps or leas, and..every such rap or lea shall..contain eighty threads. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Lea, forty threads of hemp-yarn. 1851Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 198 Line, sliver-roving, and yarn, from 500 leas to 200 leas, from the flax... Piece of cloth, 200 leas warp and 200 leas weft. 1882J. Paton in Encycl. Brit. XIV. 666/2 Throughout the United Kingdom the standard measure of flax yarn is the ‘lea’, called also in Scotland the ‘cut’ of 300 yards. 1885F. H. Bowman Struct. Wool Gloss., Lea, the seventh part of a hank; in worsted 80 yards; in cotton and silk 120 yards.
b. (See quot.)
1875Knight Dict. Mech., Lay, a quantity of wool or other fiber in a willow or carding-machine.
▪ V. lea, ley, lay, a.|liː, leɪ|
Forms: 4, 6 leye, 4–7 laye, 8 lee; 5– lay, 6– ley, 7– lea.
[? repr. OE. *lǽᵹe (implied in the comb. lǽᵹhrycg lea-rig, where lǽᵹ- cannot well stand for léah lea n.1), f. the root of lay, lie vbs. (cf. ‘to lie fallow’); the formal equivalent (:—OTeut. *læ̂gio-) is found with different meaning in OHG. aba-lâgi weary, exhausted, MHG. læ̂ge, early and dial. mod.G. läg low, flat, of poor quality, ON. gras-lǽgr lying in the grass; cf. low a.]
Of land: Fallow, unploughed.
c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 6983 Al þe lond, leye hit lay. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiv. xlviii. (1495) 484 Euery suche felde other lyeth laye..other beryth trees or is able to pasture. c1400Gamelyn 161 Thi lond that lith leie wel it shal be sowe. 1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. vii. 392 A Field, left lay for some few years, will yeeld The richer crop when it again is till'd. 1675Evelyn Terra (1676) 63 In our worn-out and exhausted lay-fields. 1788Marshall Yorks. II. 340 To lie ley, to lie in grass; as lands in a common field. 1853Raynbird Suppl. to Rham's Dict. Farm. 466 This preparation may be made before harvest, and applied to the lea ground in October. 1883Contemp. Rev. Sept. 351 Long night-watches in wet ditches and beside hedges for hares on the lea fields.
fig.c1430Hymns Virg. 70 To reepe myn heruest, whidir mai y winde? Mi londis of vertues liggen al lay. 1585Jas. I Ess. Poesie (Arb.) 39 This subiect seame a barren ground, With quickest spreits left ley. 1612T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 3 Every vision is for an appointed time: let them seeme to lie lea and voide never so long. 1827Scott Jrnl. 11 Dec., I saw..no other receipt than lying lea for a little, while taking a fallow-break to relieve my imagination, which may be esteemed nearly cropped out. |