sieva

See also sievā

English

Noun

sieva (plural sievas)

1. 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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

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Latvian

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *šeiwā-, *šiewā, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey-wā-, 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”. Cognates include Sanskrit शेवः (śévaḥ, “dear, friendly, honored”), Gothic heiwa-frauja (“household god”), Old High German hiwa (“wife”), hi(w)o (“spouse; servant”), and 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).

Pronunciation

IPA: [sīɛ̄va]

Noun

sieva f, 4th declension

1. wife (married woman; woman with respect to her husband)

   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 nau sievas — he doesn't have a wife

2. (syn. sieviete) 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

declension of sieva

	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

References