English

Noun

sieva ‎(plural sievas)

1. A small variety of lima bean.

Latvian

Vīrs un sieva

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *šeiwā-, *šiewā, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey-wā-, 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”. Cognates include Sanskrit शेवः ‎(śévaḥ, “dear, friendly, honored”), Gothic heiwa-frauja ‎(heiwa-frauja, “household god”), Old High German hiwa ‎(“wife”), hi(w)o ‎(“spouse; servant”), and 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).^[1]

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 nau 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

Synonyms

• dzīvesbiedre

Antonyms

• dzīvesbiedrs
• vīrs

Derived terms

• sieviete
• sievisks
• sievišķs, sievišķīgs, sievišķīgums, sievišķība

References

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