meia
Portuguese edit
Alternative forms edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Old Galician-Portuguese meya, from Latin media, feminine of medius (“middle; half”), from Proto-Indo-European *medʰyo- (“between”). Doublet of média.
Noun edit
meia f (plural meias)
- sock (covering for the foot; originally short form of meia-calça)
- (Brazil) Ellipsis of meia-entrada. (a ticket sold for half its normal price, as required by law, for students and children)
- Synonym: meia-entrada
- (Portugal, historical) obsolete unit of measure for liquids, equivalent to six pints
- (when reading a time) half past (short form of meia hora)
- O evento termina às três e meia.
- The event ends at half past three.
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Noun edit
meia m or f by sense (plural meias)
- (Brazil, soccer) midfielder
- Synonyms: (Portugal) médio, meio-campista
Adjective edit
meia
Descendants edit
- Kadiwéu: meeya
Adverb edit
meia
- (hypercorrect) Misconstruction of meio
- Estou *meia cansada. ― I'm a bit tired.
Usage notes edit
- The word meia, as an adverb, appears in vulgar speech because of a confusion about the role of meio. In this case, whenever meio, as an adverb, lies right before a feminine adjective, it is confused for an adjective as well, hence hypercorrected into the feminine declension meia. In standard speech, however, Portuguese adverbs are never inflected by grammatical gender.
Numeral edit
meia
- (Brazil) six (6, used instead of seis when it’s necessary to avoid confusion with rhyme três; short form of meia dúzia)
- Synonyms: meia-dúzia, seis
Further reading edit
- meia on the Portuguese Wikipedia.Wikipedia pt
Etymology 2 edit
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb edit
meia
- inflection of mear: