leigh

See also: Leigh, léigh, and lèigh

English

From Middle English legh, lege, lei (“clearing, open ground”) from Old English lēah (“clearing in a forest”) from Proto-Germanic *lauhaz (“meadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *lówkos (“field, meadow”). Akin to Old Frisian lāch (“meadow”), Old Saxon lōh (“forest, grove”) (Middle Dutch loo (“forest, thicket”); Dutch -lo (suffix forming place names)), Old High German lōh (“covered clearing, low bushes”), Old Norse ló (“clearing, meadow”). More at Waterloo.

leigh (plural leighs)

From Old French lei (“law”), ultimately from Latin lēx.

leigh f (genitive singular leigh, plural leighaghyn or leighyn)

leigh

leigh^[1]

Alternative form of leiough
- 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 84:
  Ch'am a stouk, an a donel; wou'll leigh out ee dey.
  I am a fool and a dunce; we'll idle out the day.

leigh

Alternative form of leeigh (“to laugh”)
- 1927, “ZONG O DHREE YOLA MYTHENS”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 131, lines 14^[2]:
  But aal a bys do leigh an praat,
  But all the boys do laugh and prate,

^ Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 52
^ Kathleen A. Browne (1927) The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth Series, Vol.17 No.2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page 131