German

Verb

zagt

1. Second-person plural present of zagen.
2. Third-person singular present of zagen.
3. Imperative plural of zagen.

Latvian

Etymology

Usually derived from Proto-Baltic *žangō (from Latvian *zuoguo, from the present tense form zogu), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰongʰ- ‎(“dirty”). The semantic evolution was presumably from “to make dirty, to defile” to “to defile by stealing” to “to steal”. Cognates include Lithuanian žàgti, present form: žagiù ‎(“to make dirty, to steal”), present form: žangù ‎(“to eat something forbidden, to steal”); from the adjectival form *ǵʰogʰos ‎(“dirty”), also Sanskrit जघन ‎(jaghana, “buttocks; shame”), Ancient Greek κοχώνη ‎(kokhṓnē, “crotch”). A more recent hypothesis relates zagt to Lithuanian žeñgti ‎(“to walk, to go”), iterative form žangýti; the present tense form žangaũ would then correspond to Latvian zogu. This hypothesis would presumably explain better the meaning of Latvian reflexive form zagties ‎(“to sneak, to go without being noticed”) (compare to Russian красть ‎(krastʹ, “to steal”) и красться ‎(krastʹsja, “to walk, to go without being noticed”)).^[1]

Verb

zagt tr. or intr., 1st conj., pres. zogu, zodz, zog, past zagu

1. to steal (to take something without permission, against the law, often also secretly, unbeknownst to its owner)

   zagta manta‎ ― stolen property

   lai iegūtu līdzekļus eksistēšanai, viņš gāja zagt‎ ― in order to obtain the means of existing (= living), he went stealing

   es neesmu zadzis cita mantu‎ ― I haven't stolen other people's property

2. (figuratively) to steal (to obtain, to use secretly, without permission)

   jūs zogat skaistāko, kas cilvēkam vien var būt; jūs zogat sapņus, jus zogat nākotni‎ ― you steal the most beautiful (things) a person can have; you steal dreams, you steal the future

3. (figuratively) to steal (to cause someone to lose something, to not be able to use or have something)

   rīt ārsti attālinās nāves varu, kas pāragri mums dzīves gadus zog‎ ― tomorrow the doctors will push away the power of death, which has stolen life years prematurely from us

Conjugation

Synonyms

• laupīt

Derived terms

prefixed verbs:

other derived terms:

• zagties

Related terms

• zādzība
• zaglis, zagle
• zaglīgs, zaglīgums, zaglība
• zagšus

References

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