Forms: 4 leylond, 5–6 leland(e, 5–9 ley-land, 7 lee-, 6– lay-land, 7– lea-land. [f. LEA a. + LAND sb.] Fallow land; land ‘laid down’ to grass.
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 153/4. Le ffally lest sa tere freche [glossed leylond].
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xiii. 112. On a ley-land hard I hym blaw. he commys here at hand.
1553. Short Catech. Liturgies, etc. (1844), 525. The husbandmen, that first use to shrubbe and root out the thorns, brambles, and weeds, out of their lay-land and unlooked to.
1577–95. Descr. Isles Scotl., in Skene, Celtic Scotl., III. App. 437. All teillit land, and na girs but ley land.
1671. Shetland Document, in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. (1892), XXVI. 194. To provyde laufull tennents for his Majesteis ley lands within the said Bailyerie.
1745. trans. Columella’s Husb., II. ii. Smaller ploughs, which are not strong enough to rip up the fallow grounds or lay-lands.
1876. Morris, Sigurd (1877), 314. They ride the lealand highways, they ride the desert plain.
1886. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Leylands, arable land under a grass crop. The word is a very common name for pasture fields; to be found in the terriers of most estates. It will never be found in connection with meadow land proper, but it will usually denote land once arable but now ‘laid’ down.
Proverbial phrase. c. 1500. Payne & Sorowe Evyll Maryage, 140, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 79. Yf she than wyll be no better, Set her upon a lelande, and bydde the devyll fet her.
1599. Porter, Angry Wom. Abingt. (Percy Soc.), 103. I thinke she is better lost then found … and they would be ruld by me they should set her on the leland and bid the diuell split her.
1631. R. H., Arraignm. Whole Creature, xiv. § 1. 226. She … is now … abhorred … forsaken and disrespected … set on a Lea land as they say, and disrespected.
