Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *weiš- (with metathesis of ei to ie), 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]