la

See also: Appendix:Variations of "la"

Languages (80)

Translingual • English

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Page categories

Translingual

Symbol

la

1. (international standards) ISO 639-1 language code for Latin.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɑː/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː

Etymology 1

From Glover's solmization, from Middle English la (“sixth degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian la in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin labiī (“lip's”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.

Alternative forms

• lah

Noun

la (plural las)

1. (music) A syllable used in solfège to represent the sixth note of a major scale.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     And now Mrs Waters (for we must confess she was in the same bed), being, I suppose, awakened from her sleep, and seeing two men fighting in her bedchamber, began to scream in the most violent manner, crying out murder! robbery! and more frequently rape! which last, some, perhaps, may wonder she should mention, who do not consider that these words of exclamation are used by ladies in a fright, as fa, la, la, ra, da, &c., are in music, only as the vehicles of sound, and without any fixed ideas.

Coordinate terms

• (music): do, re, mi, fa, sol, ti

Translations

See la/translations § noun.

Etymology 2

Sound used to form meaningless song refrains. Of imitative origin. Compare Old English lā (a common exclamation), Ancient Greek λαλαγε (lalage, “babble”), German lallen (“to babble”).

Interjection

la

1. Represents the sound of music or singing.

   "La la la la, I can't hear you!" Jimmy said, sticking his fingers in his ears.

   • 2019, Keira Brown, Between the Lines: Never in Plain Sight:

     The only part Lucy had to sing was the interlude, which was a bunch of la la la's, and the last verse of the song, which was only four lines, and the chorus, which was just as short.

Etymology 3

From Middle English la, from Old English lā. More at lo.

Alternative forms

• law

Interjection

la

1. (obsolete) Used to introduce a statement with emphatic or intensive effect.
2. (archaic) Expressing surprise, anger. etc.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     La, ma'am, what doth your la'ship think? the girl that your la'ship saw at church on Sunday, whom you thought so handsome; though you would not have thought her so handsome neither, if you had seen her nearer, but to be sure she hath been carried before the justice for being big with child.

   • 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter 2, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume III, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

     “Oh, la! here come the Richardsons. I had a vast deal more to say to you, but I must not stay away from them any longer.”

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     "La, William, don't be so highty-tighty with us. We're not men. We can't fight you," Miss Jane said.

Etymology 4

From French la, Italian la.

Adjective

la (not comparable)

1. Prefixed to the name of a woman, with ironic effect (as though an opera prima donna).
   • 2007 November 22, Kate Carter, The Guardian:

     Following lukewarm on the heels of an article a few weeks ago, where (I paraphrase due to having filed the relevant copy in the recycling bin) Victoria Beckham made a "well-meaning" remark that the other Spice Girls might want to lose a few pounds, we now have a new incidence of La Beckham's scintillating and entirely well-meaning humour.

   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2011, page 232:

     By judicious leaking, he also managed to make la Kirkpatrick and her associates look rather unsavory.

Etymology 5

Possibly a shortened form of lad.

Noun

la (plural las)

1. (Liverpool) lad, kid

Related terms

• lid (rhyming slang for kid)

Etymology 6

From Cantonese 啦 (laa¹). Doublet of lah.

Pronunciation

• (Hong Kong) IPA^(key): /lɑː˥/

Particle

la (Hong Kong, colloquial)

1. Placed at the end of a sentence in imperatives making it sound more like a request than an order.

   Sleep la! ― [You should] go to bed.

   Eat shit la you! ― You're going to hell! (calque of 食屎啦你！)

2. Used to tone down comments.

   ok la ― not bad; good enough

See also

• lor, wor

Etymology 7

Particle

la

1. (Singlish, Manglish) Alternative form of lah

Anagrams

• Al, & al., AL, al, al-, -al, Ål, a.l.

Afrikaans

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [lɑː]

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

la (plural [please provide])

1. (music) la (solfège)

References

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

Ama

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɭa/

Noun

la

1. fish

Anguthimri

Noun

la

1. (Mpakwithi) black snake

References

• Terry Crowley, The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri (1981), page 186

Aragonese

Etymology

From Latin illa (“that one”).

Pronoun

la

1. her (direct object)

Aromanian

Etymology

From Latin illac. Compare Romanian la.

Preposition

la

1. at
2. by

Asturian

Alternative forms

• lla (archaic)
• a (A Estierna)

Etymology

From Latin illa(m).

Article

la f sg (masculine el, neuter lo, masculine plural los, feminine plural les)

1. (definite) the

Usage notes

• The article la contracts to l' before a word beginning with a or ha: l'asturiana (the Asturian), l'habitación (the habitation), because it ends with an A already

Pronoun

la

1. her (third-person singular feminine direct pronoun)