leira

Cognate of Portuguese leira and of Asturian lleira (“strip of land”). From Old Galician-Portuguese leira, documented in local Medieval Latin as larea and laria since the 9th century. From Paleo-Hispanic, from Proto-Celtic *ɸlāryā, a derivative from Proto-Celtic *ɸlārom (“floor”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂ros (“flat”), from *pleh₂- (“to be flat”). Cognate of Welsh llawr (“floor”), of English floor, and of Luxembourgish Flouer (“farmland”). Joan Coromines discarded other proposed etymons: * Latin glārea (“gravel”), the etymon of Spanish glera (“land with gravel or sand”) and of Asturian llera (“idem”), because of the improbable semantic evolution implied; * Agglutination of the article + ārea: unlikely in the Galician-Portuguese linguistic area, where the article lost the lateral consonant.