Etymology: Old English léa(h (masculine) (genitive léas , léages , nominative plural léas ), and léah (feminine) (genitive léage ), apparently meaning a tract of cultivated or cultivable land; in spite of the difference of sense, the words appear to be etymologically identical with Old High German lôh neuter or masculine, used to render Latin lūcus grove (Middle High German lôh , lôch low brushwood, clearing overgrown with small shrubs, modern German dialect loh ), and perhaps with Flemish -loo in place-names, as Waterloo ; the pre-Germanic type *louqo- occurs also in Latin lūcus grove, and Lithuanian laukas meadow and arable land, as opposed to wood; the root is supposed by some scholars to be *leuq- to shine (whence Latin lūcēre , English light n.¹, etc.; for the sense compare clearing); others have suggested *leu- to loosen (Greek λύειν, Latin solvĕre). The sense has been influenced by confusion with lease n.¹ (Old English lǽs ), which seems often to have been mistaken for a plural, and also with lea n.²

Etymology: Elliptical use of lea adj. (also ley, lay).

Etymology: < Old Norse lé (Swedish lia, Danish lee).

Etymology: The gloss in the Promp. Parv. suggests that the word is a derivative of French lier ( < Latin ligāre ) to bind, tie. But compare lease n.⁴

Etymology: ? representing Old English *lǽge (implied in the combination lǽghrycg lea-rig n., where lǽg- cannot well stand for léah lea n.¹), < the root of lay v.¹, lie v.¹ (compare ‘to lie fallow’); the formal equivalent ( < Old Germanic *læ̂gio- ) is found with different meaning in Old High German aba-lâgi weary, exhausted, Middle High German læ̂ge , early and dialect modern German läg low, flat, of poor quality, Old Norse gras-lǽgr lying in the grass; compare low adj.