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Definition 2024

leitis

leitis

See also: leitís

Latvian

Noun

leitis m (2nd declension, feminine form: leitiete)

  1. a (male) Lithuanian
    strādnieki... kalpi, vai tie būtu vācieši, leiši, krievi, ebreji, mums draugi‎ ― workers... servants, be they Germans, Lithuanians, Russians, Jews, are friends to us
  2. (genitive plural): Lithuanian, pertaining to Lithuania and its people
    leišu valoda‎ ― the Lithuanian language
    Aspazija pieraksta leišu sakāmvardus un mīklas‎ ― Aspazija recorded Lithuanian proverbs and riddles

Declension

Usage notes

The basic, neutral term is lietuvietis. The words leitis and lietuvis are synonyms, but are much less often used, usually poetically, or in historical contexts (referring to ancient Lithuanians).

Synonyms

Related terms

References

  1. ↑ Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “lietuvieši”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, ISBN 9984-700-12-7

Etymology

From *leit- (related to Latin lītus ‎(“sea coast, beach”) < *leitos), from Proto-Baltic *lei-, *lie- with an extra -t, from Proto-Indo-European *ley-, *lī- ‎(“to pour, to flow, to drip”). The stem was perhaps originally a reference to people from the "land of the rain" or "land of the rivers." It is also possible that there was an original river or lake name *Leitā, from which *leitā-tyā, *leityā > leiša, from which the nominative leitis could be derived.[1]

Pronunciation

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