Leboreiro
A Coruña · La CoruñaGalicia
Toponym derived from the Galician-Portuguese leboreiro, 'hare-place, abundant in hares', from the Latin leporarium ('place of hares') with the suffix -arium of abundance. It describes a place historically abundant in these lagomorphs —the cleared scrub and high pastures of inland Galicia are an ideal habitat for the Iberian hare.
Evolution of the name
- lepus, leporis Latin before the 6th century
- leboreiro medieval Galician-Portuguese from the 10th century
Reflections, to the letter
In the Codex Calixtinus the place is recorded as Campus Leporarius, field of hares: the name a walker says today is the Latin a twelfth-century pilgrim already wrote. Around it stretches the low scrub of broom and gorse, the high open pastures where the Iberian hare found cover and running room. That bare country, more than any stone, explains why the place was named.
Glossary
- Locative suffix
- A Castilian ending marking "place of" or "workshop where X is worked": -ería (panadería, herrería), -ero/-era (barquera, Itero "place of the road"). From the Latin -arium.
- Repopulation
- A medieval process by which the Christian kingdoms of the northern Iberian peninsula resettled territories reconquered from al-Andalus. Generates a whole layer of repopulation toponyms: Bercianos (those from El Bierzo), Navarrete (little Navarre), Castellanos, Gallegos.
Sources
- Navaza, G. — Toponimia de Galicia
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