meia

Portuguese

meia

Alternative forms

• meya (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmej.ɐ/
• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈmɐj.ɐ/

Etymology 1

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

Adjective

meia

1. Feminine singular of adjective meio.

Descendants

• Kadiwéu: meeya

Adverb

meia

1. (hypercorrect) Misconstruction of meio

   Estou *meia cansada. (cf. "Estou meio 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.

Noun

meia f (plural meias)

1. sock (covering for the foot; originally short form of meia-calça)
2. (Brazil) a ticket sold for half its normal price, as required by law, for students and children (short form of meia-entrada)
3. (Portugal) 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.

meia m, f (plural meias)

1. (soccer) midfielder

Synonyms

• (sock): carpim (Rio Grande do Sul), peúga (Portugal)
• (ticket sold for half its normal price): meia-entrada
• (midfielder): meio-campista

Derived terms

• meia elástica

Related terms

• meado
• mear
• meias
• meio
• metade

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

Etymology 2

Inflected form of mear (“to half”).

Verb

meia

1. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present indicative of mear
2. second-person singular (tu, sometimes used with você) affirmative imperative of mear