Forms: 1 léah, léa, léaʓ, léʓ, 4 leȝ, 5–6 (9) lee, 5–7 leye, 5 lie, legh, 5–6 le, 6 lighe, laie, 6–7 laye; 5–7 lay, 5–9 ley, 6– lea. [OE. léa(h masc. (genitive léas, léaʓes, nom. pl. léas), and léah fem. (genitive léaʓe), app. meaning a tract of cultivated or cultivable land; in spite of the difference of sense, the words appear to be etymologically identical with OHG. lôh neut. or masc., used to render L. lūcus grove (MHG. lôh, lôch low brushwood, clearing overgrown with small shrubs, mod.Ger. dial. loh), and perh. with Flem. -loo in place-names, as Waterloo; the pre-Teut. type *louqo- occurs also in L. lūcus grove, and Lith. laukas meadow and arable land, as opposed to wood; the root is supposed by some scholars to be *leuq- to shine (whence L. lūcēre, Eng. LIGHT sb., etc.; for the sense cf. clearing); others have suggested *leu- to loosen (Gr. λύειν, L. so-lv-ĕre).
The sense has been influenced by confusion with LEASE sb.1 (OE. lǽs), which seems often to have been mistaken for a plural, and also with LEA sb.2]
A tract of open ground, either meadow, pasture, or arable land. After OE. chiefly found (exc. where it is the proper name of a particular piece of ground) in poetical or rhetorical use, ordinarily applied to grass land.
805. in Birch, Cartul. Sax. (1885), I. 450. Campus armentorum id est hriðra leah. Ibid. (944), (1887), II. 540. Þonne ʓeuðe ic Ælfwine & Beorhtulfe þæs leas & þæs hammes be norðan þære lytlan dic.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg. (1867), 95. Bi a forest as y gan walke With-out a paleys in a leye.
c. 1470. Golagros & Gaw., 312. Thai plantit doun ane pailyeoun, vpone ane plane lee.
c. 1470. Henryson, Fables, viii. 1793, in Anglia, IX. 458. Luik to the lint that growis on yone le.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 183. In lyssouris and on leys litill lammis Full tait and trig socht bletand to thar dammis.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 2093. I garde her gaspe, I garde her gle, With, daunce on the le, the le!
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (1858), I. 627. Eugenius vpoune ane lustie le Dewydit hes his ost in battellis thre.
a. 1541. Wyatt, in Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 90. In lusty leas at libertie I walke.
1586. Durham Depos. (Surtees), 320. I have bene yonder in the lighes.
1588. Spenser, Virg. Gnat, 110. Flowres varietie With sundrie colours paints the sprinckled lay.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 60. Ceres, most bounteous Lady, thy rich Leas Of Wheate, Rye, Barley, Fetches, Oates and Pease.
1634. Milton, Comus, 965. Other trippings … With the mincing Dryades On the Lawns, and on the Leas.
1750. Gray, Elegy, i. The lowing herd winds slowly o’er the lea.
1790. Burns, Elegy Capt. Henderson, v. Mourn, little harebells o’er the lee.
1808. Coleridge, Three Graves, III. xxxiv. I saw young Edward by himself Stalk fast adown the lee.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, 221. Stern Tushilaw strode o’er the ley.
1849. Longf., Birds of Passage, v. From the land of snow and sleet they seek a southern lea.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., cxv. Now dance the lights on lawn and lea.
1851. Kingsley, Poems, Bad Squire, 12. Where under the gloomy fir-woods One spot in the ley throve rank.
transf. 1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., i. 23. Surging Neptunes leas.
¶ Used loosely for ‘ground.’
c. 1450. Bk. Curtasye, III. 441, in Babees Bk. On legh vnsonken hit [a pallet] shalle be made.
b. Occurring in place-names.
778. Charter of Cynewulf, in O. E. Texts, 427. To brad(an) leaʓe, illo septo bradan leaʓe.
862. Charter of Æðelberht, ibid. 438. Bromleaʓ—an norðan fram ceddan leaʓe to langan leaʓe.
c. 1305. St. Kenelm, 342, in E. E. P. (1862), 56. Heo … To-ward wynchecumbe come riȝt vnder souþ leȝ.
1572. Satir. Poems Reform., xxxi. 75. Nor quhen thay come in feir of weir Downe to the Gallow Ley.
1620. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 126. A ground … now commonly called S. Thomas’ Leyes.
1844. S. Bamford, Life of Radical, 39. We found ourselves traversing Hopwood ley.
