xenreira

• senreira, sinreira, xanreira

Unknown. Attested since circa 1750. Perhaps from an older *renxeira, from renxer (“to grind one's teeth”),[1] but the earlier attestations, until the last quarter of the 19th century, are always spelled senreira, sinreira, not xenreira, which makes this proposal unlikely.

• IPA^(key): [ʃenˈrejɾɐ]

xenreira f (plural xenreiras)

1. hatred, grudge, rancour, spite
   • 1877, O Tio Marcos da Portela, 39, p. 155:

     O outro día pola mañá cedo, o rapaz achegouse onda min qu'inda estaba no leito, e dixome: «meu pai; voulle collendo unha xenreira ós que viven na ciudá, que si pillo a un solo nun carreiro, sobolle as costelas canto pódea»

     The other day, early in the morning, my child came to me, I was still in bed, and told me: «my father; I'm growing such a grudge against the ones living in the city that if I find one alone at a road, I'll knead his ribs as much as I can»

   • 1934, Castelao, Os dous de sempre, page 127:

     […] os empregados non se deixan asoballar pola súa maldade, e o mesmo porteiro deprendeu a poñerlle cara de can. Somente Pedro é un manteiguiñas, incapaz de defenderse. A covardía do xefe cabalga na covardía de Pedro, para locí-las arroutadas que non é quen de descargar no lombo dos outros. Pedro sofre en silenzo; pero cóme-no as xenreiras, e non pode ollá-la cara daquel home sen desexarlle a morte.

     […] employees don't allow him to humiliate them with his meanness, and even the doorman learnt to put an angry face for him. But Pedro is a poor thing, unable to defend himself. The boss' cowardice rides Pedro's, to show off the outbursts that he is incapable of discharging over other's shoulders. Pedro suffers in silence; but spite eats him, and he can't watch that man's face without wishing him death.

• “sinreira” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “xenreira” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “xenreira” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.