Saeima

English

Proper noun

Saeima

The Parliament of the Republic of Latvia

Anagrams

asemia

Latvian

Saeimas sēžu zāle

Etymology

Borrowed or adapted from Polish Sejm. Compare Lithuanian Seĩmas.

Juris Alunāns claims he independently coined the word, originally saeims m, from the verb saiet (“to go together”) = sa- + iet.[1][2][3] The prefix sa- is cognate to the s- in sejm, but the resemblance is otherwise superficial as the verbal roots differ. Regardless, the Latvian term was highly likely to have been influenced by the Polish term, even if one wishes to regard it as a calque or phono-semantic matching instead of a pure borrowing.[4][5][6] Compare the rare hyper-Lithuanized form sueimas introduced by Simonas Daukantas,[7] which is derived from sueĩti (“to gather”, equivalent to Latvian saiet).

Proper noun

Saeima f (4th declension)

Saeima (the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia)

Declension

Declension of Saeima (4th declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	Saeima	Saeimas
accusative (akuzatīvs)	Saeimu	Saeimas
genitive (ģenitīvs)	Saeimas	Saeimu
dative (datīvs)	Saeimai	Saeimām
instrumental (instrumentālis)	Saeimu	Saeimām
locative (lokatīvs)	Saeimā	Saeimās
vocative (vokatīvs)	Saeima	Saeimas

References

Zuicena, Ieva & Migla, Ilga (2008), “Jura Alunāna devums latviešu leksikogrāfijā”, in LU Raksti‎ (PDF, in Latvian), volume 731, ISSN 1407-2157, retrieved 2010-05-27, page 75
Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “Saeima”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN, page 141
saiet:1 at tezaurs.lv
Fraenkel, Ernst (1931), “Kreuzung einheimischer und fremder Synonyma ähnlicher Lautung im Baltischen [Crossing of native and foreign synonyms of similar sound in Baltic]”, in Zeitschrift für Slavische Philologie (in German), volume 8, issue 3–4, Leipzig: Markert & Petters Verlag, JSTOR 24000018, page 424
Fraenkel, Ernst (1955, 1962–1965), “saĩmas”, in Litauisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume II, Heidelberg-Göttingen: Carl Winter and Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, page 755
Guild, D. G. (1996–1997), “Calquing: Virtue or vice?”, in Linguistica Baltica, volume 5–6, ISSN 1230-3984, page 139
“sueimas”, in Lietuvių kalbos žodynas [Dictionary of the Lithuanian language], lkz.lt, 1941–2023

[1] Zuicena, Ieva & Migla, Ilga (2008), “Jura Alunāna devums latviešu leksikogrāfijā”, in LU Raksti‎ (PDF, in Latvian), volume 731, ISSN 1407-2157, retrieved 2010-05-27, page 75

[2] Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “Saeima”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN, page 141

[3] saiet:1 at tezaurs.lv

[4] Fraenkel, Ernst (1931), “Kreuzung einheimischer und fremder Synonyma ähnlicher Lautung im Baltischen [Crossing of native and foreign synonyms of similar sound in Baltic]”, in Zeitschrift für Slavische Philologie (in German), volume 8, issue 3–4, Leipzig: Markert & Petters Verlag, JSTOR 24000018, page 424

[5] Fraenkel, Ernst (1955, 1962–1965), “saĩmas”, in Litauisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume II, Heidelberg-Göttingen: Carl Winter and Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, page 755

[6] Guild, D. G. (1996–1997), “Calquing: Virtue or vice?”, in Linguistica Baltica, volume 5–6, ISSN 1230-3984, page 139

[7] “sueimas”, in Lietuvių kalbos žodynas [Dictionary of the Lithuanian language], lkz.lt, 1941–2023