Latvian

Noun

laivas f

1. genitive singular form of laiva
2. nominative plural form of laiva
3. vocative plural form of laiva
4. accusative plural form of laiva

Lithuanian

Etymology

Variants include dialectal laĩvė, archaic laĩva. Latvian laiva is cognate. The relationship by borrowing to Proto-Finnic *laiva (Finnish laiva “ship; nave”, Estonian laev, Livonian lōja) is also undisputed, leaving the question of which family had the word first. It is now identified as a borrowing from Proto-Germanic *flawją (cf. Old Norse fley “boat,” “raft”) into Finnic and thence Baltic, showing the Finnic sound law *vj > jv established by Koivulehto (1970).^[1] Earlier, a Baltic inherited origin had been sought. Karulis took the word to be perhaps originally used by Curonian fishermen and later spread to all the Eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, and offered the internal etymology Proto-Baltic *leiw-, *laiw-, from Proto-Indo-European *ley- with an extra -w, from *el-ey, from *Heh₃l- ‎(“to bend, to turn”); this theory would make the original meaning “bent, concave (object).”^[2]

Noun

laivas m ‎(plural laivai)

1. ship (large water vessel)

Declension

References

1. ↑ Koivulehto (1970), Suomen laiva-sanasta
2. ↑ Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “laivas”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, ISBN 9984-700-12-7