billa

• Homophones: billas, billât

billa

1. third-person singular past historic of biller

From Old Galician-Portuguese billa (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), either from a pre-Roman substrate of Iberia or from Old French bille (“stick”); ultimately from Proto-Celtic *belyom (“tree; trunk”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈbiʎɐ]

billa f (plural billas)

1. spigot

   Synonyms: espicho, espita

2. faucet
   • 1810, José Fernández y Neira, Proezas de Galicia, Pontevedra: Bibliófilos Gallegos, page 6:

     e correndo vanchese á bodega, abrironche as pipas, e sacaronche cheos de viño os caldeiros e olas, deixando abertas as billas, de maneira que todo o viño se foi pola bodega

     they ran into the wine cellar and opened the barrels; they took away cauldrons and pots filled with wine, leaving the faucets open so that all the wine slipped away by the cellar

3. stick

• billote

• billarda

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “billa”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “billa”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “billa”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “billa”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

billa f

1. definite singular of bille

billa m

1. marmelos tree

billa

1. Alternative form of pilla.

• The Courier-Mail, 28 August 1933, "MEANING OF INDOOROOPILLY.".