sviests
Latvian
Etymology
Originally the (adjectival) past passive participle of an old verb *sviest (“to smear, to spread”) (cf. Lithuanian svíesti); the original meaning of sviests was thus “(something) smeared (on something else), (something) used for smearing”; cf. Russian ма́сло (máslo, “butter, oil”) and ма́зать (mázatʹ, “to smear, spread (oil)”), or Latin unguen (“fat, grease”) and unguō (“to smear, to anoint”). The verb *sviest would in turn come from *sviesti, from Proto-Baltic *swied-ti, from Proto-Indo-European *sweyd- (“to shine”) (whence also Latvian svīst (“to sweat; to steam; to dawn”) q.v.); its original meaning would have been “to make something shine” > “to smear with oil, so that it shines” > “to smear” (cf. its descendant svaidīt (“to anoint”), originally the iterative form of *sviest). Cognates include Lithuanian svíestas.[1]
Alternatively, Pokorny (Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, p. 1043) considers this word and Lithuanian svíesti from Proto-Indo-European *kswéyd- (“milk”) (cf. Middle Indo-Aryan kṣvira, Avestan xšvīd).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [sviɛ̂sts]
Noun
sviests m (1st declension)
- butter (a dairy product, obtained from cream, with a high fat concentration)
- krējuma sviests ― cream butter
- skābkrējuma sviests ― sour cream butter
- sūkalu sviests ― whey butter
- svaigs sviests ― fresh butter
- nesalīts sviests ― unsalted butter
- kausēts sviests ― melted butter
- sviesta trauks ― butter bowl
- sautēt saknes sviestā ― to sautee roots in butter
- sviesta rūpniecība ― butter industry
- kult sviestu ― to churn butter
- gaiteņa pustumsā viņai skrēja pretī sviestā ceptu pankūku smarža ― in the darkness of the corridor the smell of pancakes fried in butter came (lit. ran) to her
- (in the genitive, used adjectivally) butter; containing butter, made with butter
- sviesta cepumi ― butter cookies
- sviesta mīklu gatavo no sviesta, cukura, kviešu miltiem, nedaudz pievienojot olas ― butter dough is made from butter, sugar, (and) wheat flour, adding a little egg (= one or two eggs)
- butter, spread (any food paste generally used as spread)
- (slang) nonsense; something that is bizarre
- (slang) something that has poor quality, is not successful
- saiet sviestā ― to deteriorate; to fail (lit. to go into butter)
Declension
singular (vienskaitlis) | plural (daudzskaitlis) | |
---|---|---|
nominative (nominatīvs) | sviests | sviesti |
accusative (akuzatīvs) | sviestu | sviestus |
genitive (ģenitīvs) | sviesta | sviestu |
dative (datīvs) | sviestam | sviestiem |
instrumental (instrumentālis) | sviestu | sviestiem |
locative (lokatīvs) | sviestā | sviestos |
vocative (vokatīvs) | sviest | sviesti |
Derived terms
Participle
sviests (definite sviestais)
Declension
masculine (vīriešu dzimte) | feminine (sieviešu dzimte) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
singular (vienskaitlis) |
plural (daudzskaitlis) |
singular (vienskaitlis) |
plural (daudzskaitlis) | ||||||
nominative (nominatīvs) | sviests | sviesti | sviesta | sviestas | |||||
accusative (akuzatīvs) | sviestu | sviestus | sviestu | sviestas | |||||
genitive (ģenitīvs) | sviesta | sviestu | sviestas | sviestu | |||||
dative (datīvs) | sviestam | sviestiem | sviestai | sviestām | |||||
instrumental (instrumentālis) | sviestu | sviestiem | sviestu | sviestām | |||||
locative (lokatīvs) | sviestā | sviestos | sviestā | sviestās | |||||
vocative (vokatīvs) | — | — | — | — | |||||
References
- Karulis, Konstantīns (1992) “sviests”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN