''Ley'' (''the Ley'', plural: the ''Leyen'') is an old German word for

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff or rock face is an area of Rock (geology), rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. ...

or crag which often occurs in placenames.

Etymology

''Ley'', also ''lay'', ''lei'', ''lai'', ''laige'' or ''lägge'', and, according to Grimm, ''leie'', is a commonly occurring name for rocks or crags in the Rhenish and Lower German language regions. It is derived from the

Old Saxon Old Saxon (), also known as Old Low German (), was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Eur ...

word, ''lêia''. It is particularly associated with rock precipices (''Felsabbrüche'') and rock faces (''Felswände''), but also with rock slabs (''Felsplatte''). In addition, it is also used in the sense of

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

''(Leienstein)'', and also to mean "slate" in the sense of a blackboard or roofing tile ''( Leiendecker)''. Its Dutch form is ''leyde'' or ''leye''. Eintra
LEIE,LEI, f. fels, stein.
In: Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm: ''

Deutsches Wörterbuch The ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'' (; "German Dictionary"), abbreviated ''DWB'', is the largest and most comprehensive dictionary of the German language in existence.University of Trier the term may have originally come from the Gallic (

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

) word, ''lika, likka'' which means "rock slab/sheet". In addition to natural rock walls, an artificial

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

, such as the basalt quarries of the

Eifel The Eifel (; , ) is a low mountain range in western Germany, eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Com ...

, may be called a ''Ley'' or ''Lay''. The workers there are known as ''Layer''.{{cite web, title=Vulkanschule: Die Museumslay, publisher=Vulkanpark, Nationaler Geopark Vulkanland Eifel, url=http://vulkanschule.de/service/vulkanpark-stationen/museumslay, accessdate=2015-05-26, language=German, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526203924/http://vulkanschule.de/service/vulkanpark-stationen/museumslay, archive-date=2015-05-26, url-status=dead

Examples

* Loreley, a well known slate hill on the Rhine *

Tholey Tholey () is a municipality in the Sankt Wendel (district), district of Sankt Wendel, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated approximately west of Sankt Wendel, and north of Saarbrücken. History Local history The first traces of settlement in t ...

, parish and abbey in the northern

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

* Theley, a village in the parish of

* the Koblenz quarter of Lay * Kaiserlei, a quarter in the city of Offenbach, named after a rock above the River Main * the Rabenlay is a hill in the

Siebengebirge The (), occasionally Sieben Mountains or Seven Mountains, are a hill range of the German Central Uplands on the east bank of the Middle Rhine, southeast of Bonn. Description The area, located in the municipalities of Bad Honnef and Königswin ...

range, at the foot of which was found the double grave of Oberkassel. * the Rabenlay is a shallows in the Rhine at river kilometre 548.5-549.0 near Oberwesel * Mendiger Ley, basalt mine * Leybucht near

Norden Norden is a Scandinavian and German word, directly translated as "the North". It may refer to: Places England * Norden, Basingstoke, a ward of Basingstoke and Deane * Norden, Dorset, a hamlet near Corfe Castle * Norden, Greater Manchester, a vill ...

(

East Frisia East Frisia () or East Friesland (; ; ; ) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisia (peninsula), East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia and to the ...

) * Plästerlegge ("raining slate rock"), waterfall near the Bestwig village of

Wasserfall The ("Waterfall remote-controlled anti-aircraft rocket") was a German guided supersonic surface-to-air missile project of World War II. Development was not completed before the end of the war and it was not used operationally. The system was ...

* Geierlay in (Mörsdorf Hunsrück), Germany's second longest suspension bridge * Erpeler Ley A basalt rock face above the Rhine, which figured importantly during the March 1945 WWII Battle of Remagen, it overlooking the

Ludendorff Bridge The Ludendorff Bridge, also known as the Bridge at Remagen, was a bridge across the river Rhine in Germany which was captured by United States Army forces in early March 1945 during the Battle of Remagen, in the closing weeks of World War I ...

References

* Oronyms