viesis

viesis

Latvian

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *weiš- (with metathesis of ei to ie), from Proto-Balto-Slavic *weiśis, from Proto-Indo-European *weyḱ- (“house, settlement”), from *wey- (“to cut, to bend, to braid, to weave”).

Initially viesis was inflected both as an i-stem and as an o-stem (*viesis, *viesas; the i-stem plural form viesis was still in use in the 17th century), whence its present-day irregular (non-s/š-alternating) declension. The change in meaning, from “house” to “guest,” occurred via old compounds like *vies-pats “lord of the house” (during celebrations, the lord of the house was also the host, the “lord of the guests,” which led to the reinterpretation of the meaning of the initial vies-), and probably also under the influence of (now dated) verb viesēt, originally “to go to someone's house, village,” later “to visit,” “to be a visitor.”

Cognates include Lithuanian archaic viešis (“guest, visitor”), viešpats (“deity; lord, governor”), viẽšės (“a visit”), viešė́ti (“to visit”), váišės (“celebrations, feasts”), vaišìnti (“to entertain, to treat”), Old Prussian waispattin (“wife”), Proto-Slavic *vьsь (“village”) (Russian весь (vesʹ), Russian dialectal ве́слина (véslina), весца́ (vescá, “small village”), Old East Slavic весь (vesĭ), Belarusian вёска (vjóska), Czech ves, Polish wieś (“village”)), Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌷𐍃 (weihs, “village”), Sanskrit विश् (viś, “village, settlement, tribe”), विश्पतिः (viśpátiḥ, “lord of the house, village elder, chief”), वेशः (veśáḥ, “inhabitant, neighbor”), Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos), dialectal ϝοῖκος (woîkos, “house, dwelling, fence, cage”), Latin vīcus (“group of houses, village”).[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [vìesis]

Noun

vìesis m (2nd declension, feminine form: vìese)

1. (male) visitor, guest (a person who comes to visit someone, and/or stays for a short time)

   kāzu viesi ― wedding guests

   ilgi gaidīts viesis ― long-awaited guest

   lūgti viesi ― invited guests

   rets viesis ― rare guest

   nelūgts viesis ― uninvited guest

   viesu grāmata ― guestbook

   saņemt, uzņemt viesus ― to receive guests

   pavadīt viesus ― to accompany the guests

   aicināt viesus pie galda ― to invite the guests to the table

   iet pie kāda viesos ― to visit someone (lit. to go to someone in (= as) guests)

2. (male) guest (a person, usually officially invited, who comes to participate in an event)

   ārzemju viesi ― foreign guests

   sagaidīt konferences viesus lidostā ― to meet the conference guests at the airport

   skatītāji, klausītāji aplaudēja viesim ― the audience applauded the guest

Declension

Declension of viesis (2nd declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	viesis	viesi
accusative (akuzatīvs)	viesi	viesus
genitive (ģenitīvs)	viesa	viesu
dative (datīvs)	viesim	viesiem
instrumental (instrumentālis)	viesi	viesiem
locative (lokatīvs)	viesī	viesos
vocative (vokatīvs)	viesi	viesi

Synonyms

• ciemiņš

Derived terms

• viesistaba, viesu istaba
• viesmīlīgs, viesmīlīgums, viesmīlība
• viesmīlis, viesmīle
• viesnīca

References

1. Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “viesis”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN