Forms: 4–5 leghe, 4–6 lege, leuge, (4 lewge, 5 lewke, leuke, leeke), 5–6 leege, 6 legge, le(a)que, Sc. lig, 6–7 leag(e, 6– league. [Late ME. leuge, lege, leghe, etc., ad. late L. leuga, leuca (= late Gr. λεύγη, λεύκη), according to Hesychius and Jordanes a Gaulish word; hence OF. liue, liwe (mod.F. lieue), Pr. lega, legua, Cat. llegua, Sp. legua, Pg. legoa, It. lega.] An itinerary measure of distance, varying in different countries, but usually estimated roughly at about 3 miles; app. never in regular use in England, but often occurring in poetical or rhetorical statements of distance. Marine league: a unit of distance = 3 nautical miles or 3041 fathoms.
Although the league appears never to have been an English measure, leuca occurs somewhat frequently in Anglo-Latin law-books (Bracton, Fleta, etc.); it is disputed whether in these works it means one mile or two.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 245. Þanne þey come to giders in þe feeldes Cathalmytes, þat conteyneþ an hondred leges [v.rr. leuges, leghes, 1432–50 lewkes] in lengþe and seventy in brede. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., XV. xxii. (1495), 497. The walles of Babylone were acountyd for two lewges and an halfe.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), viii. 28. Þis ile es cccl. leeges aboute.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, IV. i. (1481), i vij. After the maner of lombardye they be callyd myles, and in fraunce leukes, and in englond they be callyd myles also. Ibid. (1483), Gold. Leg., 223/2. Mount Joye … is but half a leeke fro seynt James.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., V. lxxxv. 63. An Hundreth Legis … wherof euery Lege conteyneth .iii. Englysshe myles.
1502. Arnolde, Chron., 66. xvi. furlong make a frensh leuge [printed lenge].
1528. Lyndesay, Dreme, 642–4. The quantytie of the erth Circuleir Is fyftie thousand liggis … Deuidyng, aye, ane lig in mylis two.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, lxxxvii. 275. A stronge castell with in a .iii. legges of Burdeux.
1555. Eden, Decades, 1. Such as are expert sea men affyrme that euery league conteyneth foure myles.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 57. The Gretians [measure] by furlonges: the Spaniardes, and French men by leques.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., III. II. vi. (1636), 382. The French league containeth two of our miles, the Spanish league three, and the common league of Germany foure, and the great league of Germany containeth five of our miles.
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 145. They hurried vs a-boord a Barke Bore vs some Leagues to Sea.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 42. At Touraine in France … there is a plain of about nine leagues long, and as many broad.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. liii. note. I never yet saw the picture … which came a league within my conception.
1828. J. M. Spearman, Brit. Gunner (ed. 2), 268. A league at sea … contains 3000 geometrical paces, or 3 English miles.
1843. Borrow, Bible in Spain, 136. Before us, at the distance of about a league and a half, rose the mighty frontier chain.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 15. The Spanish league is somewhat less than three miles and a half English.
1855. Tennyson, Charge Light Brigade, i. Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 25. Can I … sharpen ear to recognize Sound o’er league and league of silence?
b. Comb.: league-long a., that extends the length of a league.
1883. Tennyson, Charge Heavy Brigade, Prol. 27. The league-long rampart-fire.
1883. Swinburne, Les Casquettes, xxiv. Forth she fared … For a league-long raid on the bounding brine.
