llercia

Asturian

Alternative forms

• llerza (Western Asturias)
• ḷḷerza (Western Asturias)
• ḷḷercia (Western Asturias)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʎeɾθja/, [ˈʎeɾ.θja]
• Rhymes: -θja
• Hyphenation: ller‧cia

Etymology

Unknown. Cognate with Galician lercia. Xosé Lluis García Arias proposes in his Propuestes Etimolóxiques (Etymological Proposals) that it may come from a normalized participle of Latin erigere with the definite article l' being added to the word and eventually palatizing., Old Spanish erzer, which gives archaic Spanish ercer, would have a similar evolution but without the article, if so it would be a doublet of erguer and arrechu.

Noun

llercia f (plural llercies)

1. big fear
   • 1600's, Antón de Marirreguera (disputed), Píramo y Tisbe‎^[1]‎^[2]:

     Toda mió esplicativa ye muy poca / Para decer la llercia que sentigo [...] Que de llercia y dolor l' alma i allancia / Ve la toca sangrienta y les pisades

     All of my explaining it's very little / To say the fear that I feel [...] That out of fear and pain the soul throws him, / See the bloody batten and the footprints

   • 1904, Pachín de Melás, La güelina‎^[3]:

     Los páxaros, mudos, / nel picu la llercia, / nin canten, nin blinquen, / ni esnalen de pena.

     The birds, mute / in their beck the fear / they neither sing, nor jump / nor do they fly out of sadness

   • 1988, Carlos Rubiera, Cuentos de bona oreya‎^[4]:

     Topélu arriba, na «Central», ente'l ruxir d'aquelles maquinones que me daben tanta llercia. [...] Y sentí llercia otra vegada: la llercia lo venidero. Y yera mayu.

     I found him above, in the "Central", among the roar of those big machines that scared me so much. [...] And I felt fear again: the fear of what's to come. And it was may.

   • 1994, Héctor García Gil, El cuélebre'l faéu, Lletres Asturianes 52:

     pal casu quedaríame coles mios peñes y sinón, la mar que nunca enxamás viere dábame llercia. [...] Cuandu lu vio de cerca, la llercia tarazó-y el sen al nuesu Xuan y sólo pudo sirvir yá comu cebera pal cuélebre y non pa munchu tiempu.

     for that matter I'd stay with my rocks and if not, the sea that never ever seeing it scared me. [...] When he saw it close up, the fear destroyed his sense to our Xuan (John) and he could only serve then as food for the cuélebre and not for long.

   • 2002, Nel Amaro, Antígona, por exemplu‎^[5]:

     una d'eses descamisaes qu'aguarden a los sos homes nes puertes de les cárceles, muertes de fríu y llercia, [...] ¡Sentirán llercia! Ye la pallabra, señorita. [...] ¡La llercia! ¿Qué ye? ¿Nun sintió enxamás vusté tala llercia? ¿Nin agora? [...] nun cuartón xeláu, infernal, llega a sentir llercia y ablandiase, alloráu, poles alcordances.

     one of those shirtless ones that wait for their husbands at the prisons' doors, dead of cold and fear. [...] They'll fear! It's the word, lady. [...] Fear! What is it? Haven't you never felt that fear? Not even now? [...] in a frozen dungeon, hellish, he feels fear and he softens, dazed, because of the memories

   Synonyms: medrana, mieu

   Tengo-y muncha llercia

   I'm very afraid of him/her

   Canciamos p'alloñar la llercia

   We sing to ward off fear

2. mythological being used to scare children

References

• "llercia" in Diccionario General de la Lengua Asturiana (DGLA)
• "llercia" in Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana (DALLA)