meia

Portuguese

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

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

  • Audio (Brazil):(file)
  • Audio (Portugal):(file)
  • Audio (Northern Portugal):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ejɐ, (Portugal) -ɐjɐ
  • Hyphenation: mei‧a

Etymology 1

Adjective

meia

  1. feminine singular of meio

Etymology 2

Clipping of meia-calça; compare Catalan mitja and Spanish media for similar developments. Doublet of média and mídia.

Noun

meia f (plural meias)

  1. sock (covering for the foot)
    Synonyms: (Rio Grande do Sul) carpim, (Portugal) peúga
Derived terms
  • meia de vidro
  • meia elástica
Descendants
  • Kadiwéu: meeya
  • Macanese: mea

Etymology 3

Clipping of meia-entrada.

Noun

meia f (plural meias)

  1. (Brazil) A ticket sold for half its normal price, as required by law, for students and children
    Synonym: meia-entrada

Etymology 4

Feminine singular of meio.

Noun

meia f (plural meias)

  1. (Portugal, historical) obsolete unit of measure for liquids, equivalent to six pints
  2. (when telling time) half past (short form of meia hora)
    O evento termina às três e meia.
    The event ends at half past three.

Noun

meia m or f by sense (plural meias)

  1. (Brazil, soccer) midfielder
    Synonyms: (Portugal) médio, meio-campista

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.

Etymology 5

Clipping of meia dúzia (“half a dozen”).

Numeral

meia

  1. (Brazil) six (6, used instead of seis when it’s necessary to avoid confusion with rhyme três)
    Synonyms: meia-dúzia, seis

Etymology 6

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

Further reading

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