sieva
English
Noun
sieva (plural sievas)
- A small variety of lima bean.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for sieva in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)
Anagrams
- Eavis, avise, e-visa, evisa
Latvian
Etymology
From Proto-Balto-Slavic *śéiwāˀ, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱéy-wos, from *ḱey- (“be located; camp, settlement; friendly; from the same home”) with a suffix -wā (from the same stem also Latvian saime (“household”)). The semantic change seems to have been “friendly settlement or household member” > “woman”. Cognate with Sanskrit शेव (śéva, “dear, friendly, honored”), Gothic 𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍅𐌰-𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰 (heiwa-frauja, “master of the house”), Old High German hiwa (“wife”), hi(w)o (“spouse; servant”), Latin civis (“citizen”) (previously “household member”, “villager”). As Latvian sieva gradually shifted its basic meaning to “wife”, a new term sieviete (“woman”) was coined (in the 19th century).[1]
Pronunciation
IPA(key): [sīɛ̄va]
Noun
sieva f (4th declension)
- wife (married woman; woman with respect to her husband)
- vīrs un sieva ― husband and wife
- nolūkot sievu ― to look for a wife
- ņemt, apņemt sievu ― to take a wife (= to get married)
- sievas vecāki ― wife's parents
- viņa jau divus gadus ir sieva ― she has been a wife for two years
- viņam nav sievas ― he doesn't have a wife
- woman
- sievu koris ― women's choir
- tirgus sieva ― market woman (who sells at the market)
- istabā ienāca kāda sieva ― some woman came into the room
Declension
| singular (vienskaitlis) | plural (daudzskaitlis) | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative (nominatīvs) | sieva | sievas |
| accusative (akuzatīvs) | sievu | sievas |
| genitive (ģenitīvs) | sievas | sievu |
| dative (datīvs) | sievai | sievām |
| instrumental (instrumentālis) | sievu | sievām |
| locative (lokatīvs) | sievā | sievās |
| vocative (vokatīvs) | sieva | sievas |
Synonyms
- dzīvesbiedre
Antonyms
- dzīvesbiedrs
- vīrs
Derived terms
- sieviete
- sievisks
- sievišķs, sievišķīgs, sievišķīgums, sievišķība
References
- Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “sieva”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN