ဦးလေး

Burmese

Etymology

ဦး (u:, “sir; head”) +‎ လေး (le:, “heavy; to attach importance to”).

The "be hesitant" sense is separated by MED, though also considered etymologically equivalent to the "uncle" sense ("heavy sir" vs "going heavy in the head = hesitant").

Pronunciation

• Phonetic respelling: ဦး+လေး
• IPA^(key): /ʔúlé/
• Romanization: MLCTS: u:le: • ALA-LC: ūʺleʺ • BGN/PCGN: u:le: • Okell: ùleì

Noun

ဦးလေး • (u:le:)

1. uncle, specifically mother's younger brother

Verb

ဦးလေး • (u:le:)

1. to be hesitant
2. (archaic) to be bored

Further reading

• “ဦးလေး” in Myanmar–English Dictionary (Myanmar Language Commission 1993). Searchable online at SEAlang.net.