Lei

See also: Appendix:Variations of "lei"

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Chinese 雷 (léi).

Proper noun

Lei (plural Leis)

1. A surname from Chinese.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Lei is the 4726^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 7504 individuals. Lei is most common among Asian/Pacific Islander (94.23%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Lei”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 2, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 417.

Anagrams

• EIL, lie, ile-, Eli, Lie, LIE, Ile, -lie, -ile, %ile, ELI, ile

German

Etymology 1

From Middle High German leie, probably from Celtic and ultimately from a substrate language. Cognate with Luxembourgish Lee, Dutch lei.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /laɪ̯/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Homophone: leih

Noun

Lei f (genitive Lei, plural Leien)

1. (now chiefly in placenames) a rock, mostly in the Rhenish Massif, typically of slate
2. (obsolete) synonym of Schiefer (“slate”)

Declension

Declension of Lei [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Lei	die	Leien
genitive	einer	der	Lei	der	Leien
dative	einer	der	Lei	den	Leien
accusative	eine	die	Lei	die	Leien

Alternative forms

• Lay, Ley, Leie

Derived terms

• Erpeler Ley
• Kaiserlei
• Leiendecker
• Loreley
• von der Leyen

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈleːi/, /lɛɪ̯/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Noun

Lei

1. plural of Leu (Romanian currency)

Hawaiian

Etymology

lei (“wreath; child”). Also a short form of numerous compound names containing the word lei.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlei̯/, [ˈlɛj]

Proper noun

Lei

1. a female or male given name from Hawaiian, also a nickname

Related terms

• Kalei
• Kuʻulei

References

• Hawaii State Archives: Marriage records Lei occurs in 19th century marriage records as the only name (mononym) of 1 woman and 3 men.

Italian

Etymology

The use of a word literally meaning "she" as a courtesy pronoun is apparently due to allocution with formulae such as "la Vostra persona" (Your person) being grammatically female. Although grammatically female, the courtesy pronoun can be used with grammatically masculine complements (e.g. "Lei è coraggioso", meaning "You are brave.MASC"). As for the enclitic forms of this pronoun, usage oscillates between keeping the uppercase ("Vorrei comunicarLe", I wish to tell you, sir) and aligning it to the rest of the word ("Vorrei comunicarle", I wish to tell you, sir)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛ.i/
• Homophone: lei
• Rhymes: -ɛi
• Hyphenation: Lè‧i

Pronoun

Lei

1. (formal, polite) alternative letter-case form of lei (“you”)

   Synonyms: (elevated, archaic) Ella, (Southern Italy) Voi

See also

Italian personal pronouns

		singular						plural
		first	second	second formal / polite5	third			first	second	second formal / polite5	third
				m or f	m	f				m or f	m	f
nominative		io	tu	Lei, Ella8	lui, egli,8 ello,8 elli,3, 8 esso8	lei, ella,8 essa8		noi	voi, Voi7	Loro	loro
elli,3, 8 ellino,4, 8 eglino,4, 8 essi8	elle,3, 8 elleno,4, 8 esse8
atonic (clitic)11	accusative / dative-reflexive	mi, m', -mi, me9	ti, t', -ti, te9	―	si,6 s', -si, se,9 ci13			ci, c', -ci, ce,9 ne,4 n'4	vi, Vi,7 v', V',7 -vi, -Vi,7 ve9	―	si, s', -si, se9
	accusative			La, -La, L'	lo, l', -lo, il4	la, l', -la				Le, -Le	li, -li	le, -le
	dative			Le, -Le	glie9					Loro10	loro,10 gli,2 -gli,2 glie9
					gli, -gli, il4	le, -le, gli,2 -gli2
	locative	―			ci, c', vi,1 v'1			―			ci, c', vi,1 v'1
	partitive	ne, n'		ne, n'
tonic12	prepositional-reflexive	―			sé			―			sé
	oblique	me	te	Lei	lui, esso8	lei, essa8		noi	voi, Voi7	Loro	loro,
											essi8	elle,8 esse8

¹ Formal.
² Informal.
³ Archaic.
⁴ Obsolete or literary.
⁵ Grammatically third person forms used semantically in the second person as a formal or polite way of addressing someone (with the first letter frequently capitalised as a sign of respect, and to distinguish them from third person subjects). Unlike the singular forms, the plural forms are mostly antiquated terms of formal address in the modern language, and second person plural pronouns are almost always used instead.
⁶ Also used as indefinite pronoun meaning “one”, and to form the passive.
⁷ Formal (capitalisation optional); in many regions, can refer to just one person (compare with French vous).
⁸ Traditional grammars still indicate the forms egli (animate), ello / ella (animate), esso / essa and their plurals as the nominative forms of the third person pronouns; outside of very formal or archaizing contexts, all such forms have been replaced by the obliques lui, lei, loro.
⁹ Forms used when followed by a third-person direct object proclitic (lo, la, li, le, or ne).
¹⁰ Used after verbs.
¹¹ Unstressed forms, stand alone forms are found proclitically (except dative loro / Loro), others enclitically (-mi, -ti, etc.).
¹² Disjunctive, emphatic oblique forms used as direct objects placed after verbs (or before them, chiefly in literary Italian), in exclamations, along prepositions (prepositional) and some adverbs (come, quanto, etc.); also used with a to create alternative emphatic dative forms.
¹³ Only in "ci si", replaces indefinite si (“one”) before reflexive si (“oneself”).

Anagrams

• -ile, eli

Slovak

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛi/
• Homophone: Ley

Proper noun

Lei

1. dative of Lea
2. locative of Lea