latvietis

Latvian

Etymology

From latvis (“Latvian”) +‎ -ietis. This term had in principle replaced latvis as the autodenomication of the Latvians already in the 19th century, but the latter was reintroduced via poetry and continues to exist as a poetic term.[1]

Noun

latvietis m (2nd declension, feminine form: latviete)

  1. a (male) Latvian, a Lett
  2. (genitive plural): Latvian, pertaining to Latvia and its people
    latviešu valoda ― the Latvian language

Usage notes

The word latvis is a synonym of latvietis, but it is less frequently used, and more often than not refers to ancient Latvians, or Latvians as an ethnic group.

Declension
Declension of latvietis (2nd declension)
singular (vienskaitlis) plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs) latvietis latvieši
accusative (akuzatīvs) latvieti latviešus
genitive (ģenitīvs) latvieša latviešu
dative (datīvs) latvietim latviešiem
instrumental (instrumentālis) latvieti latviešiem
locative (lokatīvs) latvietī latviešos
vocative (vokatīvs) latvieti latvieši

Synonyms

References
  1. Karulis, Konstantīns (1992) “latvietis”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN
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