meia

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• meya (obsolete)

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmej.ɐ/ [ˈmeɪ̯.ɐ]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmej.ɐ/ [ˈmeɪ̯.ɐ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmej.a/ [ˈmeɪ̯.a]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈmɐj.ɐ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈmɐj.ɐ/
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈmej.ɐ/
  • (Central Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈmej.ɐ/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈme.ɐ/

• Rhymes: -ejɐ, (Portugal) -ɐjɐ
• Hyphenation: mei‧a

• Audio (Brazil):

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Old Galician-Portuguese meya, from Latin media, feminine of medius (“middle; half”), from Proto-Indo-European *medʰyo- (“between”). Doublet of média.

Noun

meia f (plural meias)

1. sock (covering for the foot; originally short form of meia-calça)

   Synonyms: (Rio Grande do Sul) carpim, (Portugal) peúga

2. (Brazil) Ellipsis of meia-entrada. (a ticket sold for half its normal price, as required by law, for students and children)

   Synonym: meia-entrada

3. (Portugal, historical) obsolete unit of measure for liquids, equivalent to six pints
4. (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

• meia elástica

Related terms

• meado
• mear
• meias
• meio
• metade

Noun

meia m or f by sense (plural meias)

1. (Brazil, soccer) midfielder

   Synonyms: (Portugal) médio, meio-campista

Adjective

meia

1. feminine singular of meio

Descendants

• Kadiwéu: meeya
• Macanese: mea

Adverb

meia

1. (hypercorrect) Misconstruction of meio

   Estou *meia cansada. ― I'm a bit tired.

Usage notes

• 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

meia

1. (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

• meia on the Portuguese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^pt

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

meia

1. inflection of mear:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative