different between cleg vs cley

English

Alternative forms

• clegg
• gleg

Etymology

From Middle English clege, from Old Norse kleggi, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gl?g?-s (“point”); compare with Norwegian Nynorsk klegg, Ancient Greek ?????? (gl?khís, “barb”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl??/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

cleg (plural clegs)

1. (now dialectal) A light breeze.
2. (Scotland, England dialect) A blood-sucking fly of the family Tabanidae; a gadfly, a horsefly.
   • 1657, Thomas Burton, Diary, I,

     Sir Christopher Pack did cleave like a clegg, and was very angry he could not be heard ad infinitum.

   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song, Polygon 2006 (A Scots Quair), p. 39,

     Now that was in summer, the time of fleas and glegs and golochs in the fields, when stirks would start up from a drowsy cud-chewing to a wild a feckless racing, the glegs biting through hair and hide to the skin below the tail-rump.

   • 2011, Denis Brook, Phil Hinchliffe, North to the Cape: A Trek from Fort William to Cape Wrath, page 49,

     Whilst the swarms which surround you are annoying, they do not bite. It is the midges, clegs and ticks you should be on the lookout for.

Synonyms

• (blood-sucking fly of family Tabanidae): blind-fly (Central Africa), deer fly (genus Chrysops), gadfly, horsefly, tabanid

References

• “cleg”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

References

• Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 1144

Anagrams

• CGEL

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English cle, clea, from Old English cl?a (“claw”) (where the oblique forms > English claw).

Noun

cley (plural cleys)

1. (obsolete) A claw.
   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 74:

     "But that more heavy Birds are otherwise provided for defence, namely either by Spurs that grow on their Legs, or by the strength and sharpness of some single cley in their Foot; as I have observed in the Cassoware or Emeu"

Derived terms

• cleystaff

Etymology 2

From Middle English cley, from Old English cl?? (“clay”).

Noun

cley (plural cleys)

1. Alternative spelling of clay

Anagrams

• Cely, cyle

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English cl??, from Proto-West Germanic *klaij, from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gloh?iyós.

Alternative forms

• clei, clay, clai, clei?, cleye, claye

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?i?/

Noun

cley (uncountable)

2. clay, plaster, or earth like clay.
3. Any earth or terrain; something of little value or import.

Related terms

• cleyed
• cleyen
• cleyere
• cleyye

Descendants

• English: clay, cley
• Scots: cley

References

• “clei, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-1.

Etymology 2

From Old French cloie.

Alternative forms

• clei, claye

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kl?i?(?)/

Noun

cley (plural cleys)

2. A frame composed of planks crossed together.

References

• “clei(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-1.