xeira

Galician

Etymology

From an older Old Galician-Portuguese jeyra, geyra, from Medieval Latin diāria (“daily”), from Latin diēs (“day”). Cognate with Spanish jera.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈʃejɾɐ]

Noun

xeira f (plural xeiras)

1. day's work

   Synonym: xornal

   xeiras grandes e pobeas raras levan donos á terras estrañas (proverb)

   long working days and few gavels take the owner to strange lands

2. work; task
3. tiredness
4. land which can be plowed in a day with a single pair of oxen
   • 1451, X. Ferro Couselo, editor, A vida e a fala dos devanceiros. Escolma de documentos en galego dos séculos XIII ao XVI, Vigo: Galaxia, page 133:

     Iten, un lugar en Raynros, que ten hua casa e hua cabadura de viña e dous ou tres geyras de tarreo de lebar pan

     Item, a hamlet in Raynros, which has a house and a vineyard and two or three xeiras of land suitable for growing cereals

5. day's walk; journey; road
6. time worked for a neighbour or for the community, in exchange for a future similar help
7. series

Related terms

• contraxeira

References

• “xeira” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “xeira”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “xeira”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “xeira”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN