Latvian edit

 māte on Latvian Wikipedia
 
Māte un bērns

Etymology edit

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *mā́ˀtē,[1] from Proto-Indo-European *méh₂tēr (mother), where the initial *ma, *meh₂ may have originally been a child's call or nursery word.

Cognates include Lithuanian mótė (woman, wife”, dialectally also “mother), móteris (woman), mótina (mother), Old Prussian mūti, muti, mothe, Sudovian ate (< *māte), Proto-Slavic *mati (Russian мать (matʹ), Belarusian маць (macʹ), Ukrainian ма́ти (máty), Bulgarian ма́ти (máti), ма́тер (máter), Czech máti, archaic Polish mać), Proto-Germanic *mōdēr (Old Saxon mōdar, Old English mōdor, English mother, Old Norse móðir, Old High German muoter, German Mutter), Sanskrit मातृ (mā́tṛ), Avestan 𐬨𐬁𐬙𐬀𐬭 (mātar), Ancient Greek μήτηρ (mḗtēr), Doric μάτηρ (mátēr), Latin māter.[2]

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

māte f (5th declension)

  1. mother (female parent)
    mātes mīlestība, rūpes, piensmother's love, care, milk
    māte un bērnsmother and child
    daudzbērnu mātea many-child mother
    vientuļā mātesingle (= unmarried) mother
    mātes valodamother tongue (= native language)
    mātes un bērna aizsardzībamother and child protection
    bērni palikuši bez māteschildren left without a mother
    aizstāt kādam mātito replace someone's mother
    būt mātes cerībāsto be in hope of mother (= to be pregnant)
    mazā meitenīte kā mazs cinītis sēdēja mātei blakusthe little girl, like a little hill, sat next to (her) mother
  2. female individual of some animal species
    briežu, vilku, lāču mātedeer, wolf, bear mother (= female)
    bišu mātequeen bee
  3. (endearing) an older woman
    piesēdies, māt! — take a seat, mother!
    meža māteforest mother (= a mythical being)

Declension edit

Antonyms edit

Derived terms edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Kim, Ronald (2018), “The Phonology of Balto-Slavic”, in Jared S. Klein, Brian Joseph, and Matthias Fritz, editors, Handbook of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An International Handbook[1], Berlin: de Gruyter, →ISBN
  2. ^ Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “māte”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN