balts m (uncountable)
From an unattested verb *balt (“to become white”) (of which balts originally was the past participle form; compare Lithuanian bálti, and Latvian 17th-century derived verb baltīt (“to make, paint something white”), later replaced by other verbs, derived from balts: from Proto-Baltic *bal-, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-, *bʰol- (“shiny, white”). Cognates include Lithuanian báltas, Sudovian bałtas. In several Indo-European languages, reflexes of the stem *bʰel-, *bʰol- are often found in words relating to water or humid places, probably due to their shiny, reflective surfaces: Illyrian *balta (“marsh, swamp”), Albanian baltë (“mud, sludge, swamp”), Proto-Slavic *bolto (“swamp, lake”) (Old Church Slavonic блато (blato, “lake”), Russian болото (boloto, “marsh, swamp”) (dialectal “puddle, lake”), Czech bláto (“mud; pl. swamp”), Polish błoto (“mud, swamp”)). This usage is also attested in Baltic languages, as in, e.g., Old Prussian placename Namuynbalt (swamp). It left also traces in Latvian, in the names of lakes or swamps (Baltenis, Baltiņa purvs), and is a possible source of the word balti (“Balts, Baltic”).
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balts (definite baltais, comparative baltāks, superlative visbaltākais, adverb balti)
masculine (vīriešu dzimte) | feminine (sieviešu dzimte) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
singular (vienskaitlis) |
plural (daudzskaitlis) |
singular (vienskaitlis) |
plural (daudzskaitlis) | ||||||
nominative (nominatīvs) | balts | balti | balta | baltas | |||||
accusative (akuzatīvs) | baltu | baltus | baltu | baltas | |||||
genitive (ģenitīvs) | balta | baltu | baltas | baltu | |||||
dative (datīvs) | baltam | baltiem | baltai | baltām | |||||
instrumental (instrumentālis) | baltu | baltiem | baltu | baltām | |||||
locative (lokatīvs) | baltā | baltos | baltā | baltās | |||||
vocative (vokatīvs) | — | — | — | — | |||||
balts | pelēks | melns |
sarkans, sārts | oranžs; brūns | dzeltens |
zaļš | ||
zilzaļš, ciāns | zils | |
violets; zilganviolets, indigo | fuksīns; violets | rozā |
The mainstream opinion on this word is that it comes from old uses of the stem balts (“white”) (q.v.) in names of places containing water, giving rise to the name of the Baltic Sea (already Latin Mare Balticum); it is possible that *balt- in Old Prussian placenames referred originally to the sea or coastal area. Another suggestion is that Latin Mare Balticum is to be derived from Old Norse balti, Danish balte, from Latin balteum (“belt”) (whence German Belt (“sea strait”)), perhaps because of this sea's narrowness, or because of the many islands and straits between islands and the continent.
balts m (1s declension)
This word is almost always used in the plural; the singular forms, though existing, are only sporadically attested (probably due to potential confusion with the adjective balts (“white”)).
From Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-.
balts (feminine balta)
balts