skaitīt

From Proto-Baltic *skait-, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *(s)keit-, *(s)koit-, an ablaut variant of Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut; to separate”).

The original meaning was thus “cut (off)”, apparently a reference to incisions made on wood to mark numbers or quantities (a custom found among many peoples, and also among ancient Latvians); the noun skaits “number” would have originally meant “incision”, and the verb skaitīt “to make incisions” > “to mark the number”, “to count”.

It is also possible that another stem, proposed by some researchers as the source of skaitīt: Proto-Indo-European *kʷeyt- (“to observe”) (> Russian честь (čestʹ, “honor”), Sanskrit चेतति (cétati, “to notice, observe”), केत (kéta, “will, intention, tendency, invitation”)), has converged historically with *skey- in this word.

Cognates include Lithuanian skaitýti (“to read; to count; to calculate”), Proto-Slavic *čisti, *čitati “to read, to count”, from earlier Proto-Slavic *kitō or *skitō (Old Church Slavonic чисти (čisti, “to count”), first person present tense чьтѫ (čĭtǫ), Russian чита́ть (čitátʹ, “to read”), dialectal and archaic честь (čestʹ, “to read, to count”), Bulgarian чета́ (četá, “to read”), dialectal четъ́ (četǎ́, “to count”), Czech čítat (“to read, to count”), čísti (“to read”), Polish czytać (“to read”), Old Polish czyść), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌽 (skaidan), German scheiden (“to divide, to separate”).[1]

• IPA^(key): [skàjtîːt]

skaitīt (transitive or intransitive, 3rd conjugation, present skaitu, skaiti, skaita, past skaitīju)

1. to count (to say the numbers in order)

   skaitīt līdz desmit ― to count to ten

   skaitīt uz priekšu un atpakaļ ― to count up and down

   iemacīties skaitīt ― to learn (how) to count

   sensenos laikos cilvēks partis skaitīt tikai līdz divi ― in ancient times, people could count only (up) to two

   Annele putnu gaidot skaita: divdesmit, piecdesmit, simtu, divi simti... bet debess paliek kā izmirusi ― Annele, waiting for the bird(s), counted: twenty, fifty, a hundred, two hundred... but the sky remained as if dead

2. to count (to establish how many objects, people, etc. there are in a given group by assigning to each of them a number in order)

   skaitīt grāmatas ― to count books

   skaitīt naudu ― to count money

   skaitīt balsis ― to count votes

   skaitīt ar pirkstiem ― to count on (one's) fingers

   skaitāmie kauliņi ― abacus (lit. countable beads)

   viņš skaitīja, cik katra loga restēm caurumiņu ― he counted how many holes (there) were on the window grill

   vecais sienas pulkstenis gurdi skaita sekundes, kas kļūst par minūtēm un stundām ― the old wall clock tiredly counts the seconds that (in turn) become minutes and hours

   agrāk šādus smilšu pulksteņus lietoja, skaitot slimnieka pulsu ― earlier they used such hourglasses (when) taking (lit. counting) a person's pulse

3. to count (to measure the time from a certain event on)

   Latvijā futbola sākumu skaita ar 1907. gadu, kad Rīgā organizēja pirmo futbola kolektīvu ― the beginning of soccer in Latvia is counted with (= from) 1907, when the first soccer team was organized in Riga

4. to count (syllables), to scan, to recite (poetry), to pray prayer)

   vīri un sievas... klusībā skaita tēvreizi — men and women... quietly recited the Lord's prayer

   man sarīkojumā bija jāskaita Aspazijas dzejolis ― at the party I had to recite Aspazija's poem

5. to recite (to speak monotonously, usually repeating the same words)

   “nakts un tumsa... nakts un tumsa..”. viņas lūpas skaita šos divus vārdus ― “night and darkness... night and darkness..”. her lips recited these two words

   Gunta jau attin ēdamlietu saini pie galda un skaita skaļā balsī: “halva, pīrāgi, kotletes, sviests, rieksti” — Gunta unwrapped the foodstuffs on the table and recited aloud: “halva, pies, meatballs, butter, nuts”

6. to count (something) as (something) (to consider something as part of some group; to believe something to be true, to have happened)

   mani lūdzu neskaitīt līdz ― please don't count me in

   skaitīt kādu par izglītotu ― to count (= consider) someone as educated

   ja Daņilovas gravai pārbrauksim, varam skaitīt, ka esam mājās ― if (= when) we will have passed Daņilova's glen, we can count (ourselves) already at home

prefixed verbs:

other derived terms:

• skaitītājs, skaitītāja
• skaitīties

• skaitlis
• skaits

• rēķināt