sieva

See also: sievā and sievä

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “sieva”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• Eavis, avise, e-visa, evisa

Latvian

Vīrs un sieva

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).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [sīɛ̄va]

Noun

sieva f (4th declension)

1. 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

2. 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 (4th 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