Lezama
Bizkaia · VizcayaEuskadi · País Vasco
From the Basque lehia or letxe 'edge, slope' + -zama (a locative suffix of disputed origin): probably 'place on the slope'. Documented since the 12th century.
The first element, lehia or variants letxe / lez-, is the Basque word for 'edge, slope, border'; it appears in toponyms such as Lezate (slope pass), Lezaeta and Lezama itself. The suffix -zama is of disputed origin: some onomasts link it to a pre-Roman locative, others derive it from an asma/-zama element of opaque meaning. The dominant interpretation in contemporary Basque onomastics is 'place on the slope', consistent with the council's geography, on the flank of Mount Sollube on the right bank of the river Asua. Today Lezama is famous outside the Camino for Lezama Instalaciones, the training ground of Athletic Club Bilbao since 1971, where the Basque youth players are trained for one of the few clubs in the world maintaining a 'Basque-only youth policy'.
Evolution of the name
- Lezama medieval Basque from the 12th century
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.
- Onomastics
- The linguistic discipline that studies proper names — of persons, places and institutions. "Onomastic readings" are competing etymological hypotheses about a name.
- Onomatologist
- A specialist in onomastics, the linguistic discipline that studies proper names — of persons (anthroponyms), places (toponyms) and institutions.
- Pre-Roman
- Prior to the Romanisation of the Iberian peninsula (3rd century BC); applied to toponyms, linguistic roots and populations.
Sources
- Mitxelena, K. — Apellidos vascos
- Salaberri Zaratiegi, P. — Araba/Álava: los nombres de nuestros pueblos
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Camino del Norte