ģints

Traditionally considered borrowed from Lithuanian gentìs (“family, kin group, clan, tribe; relative”). But the Lithuanian form has en instead of in; in occurs only in some Eastern Lithuanian dialects. Also, in the 17th century, Latvian forms with in are attested in Semigallia (Zemgale), agreeing with the in Old Prussian gyntos (“men, husbands”); it may therefore be that ģints was originally not a borrowing but an old Curonian word which later spread from Western Latvia to Semigallia. Note that older Semigallian dialects sometimes conserved initial ģ (> dz in standard Latvian): cf. place names like Ģintumi or Ģinuļi. If this is the case, then ģints, like Lithuanian gentìs, reflects Proto-Indo-European *ǵen- (< *ǵenh₁-) “to create,” “to give birth” (via an unaltered Proto-Baltic *gint-, where the initial g, instead of ž, results from either the influence of the related stem *gʷem-, whence also dzemdēt “to give birth,” or from conservative dialectal variants).^[1]

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ģints f (6th declension)

1. (history, anthropology) family, kin group, clan (a primitive unit of social organization, based on blood relations and lineage from a common ancestor)

   patriarhālā ģints ― patriarchal family

   ģints iekārta ― family order, organization, system

   ģints sabiedrība ― familiar society (i.e., composed of families)

   mātes ģints ― maternal, matriarchal family (where descent goes through the mother's line)

   tēvas ģints ― paternal, patriarchal family (where descent goes through the father's line)

2. (poetic) people (group of people with common interests, ideas, goals, viewpoints)

   bet stāv pats nams! viņš dibināts uz klints, / un viņu sargā jaunā darba ģints ― but the house itself stands! it is founded upon a rock, / and it is protected by the young working people

   atceries, atceries varoņu ģinti, / ugunīs gāja tie vārtus tev vērt ― remember, remember the hero people, / they walked on fire to open the gates for you

3. (biology, taxonomy) genus (a group of species)

   dzimtas iedala ģintīs... zaķu dzimtā ir divas ģintis: trušu ģints un zaķu ġints ― families are divided into genera... in the hare family (Leporidae) there are two genera: the rabbit genus (Oryctolagus) and the hare genus (Lepus)

   zemeņu ģintī izšķiram dārza zemeņu, meža zemeņu un spradzeņu sugas ― in the strawberry genus we distinguish the garden strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa), the woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) and the spradzene (Fragaria viridis) species

• (of "family"): ģimene
• (of "household," "family + servants"): saime
• (of "extended family," "kin group"): dzimta
• (dated term): famīlija