balts

Borrowed from German Balz.

• IPA^(key): /bɑlts/

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• Hyphenation: balts
• Rhymes: -ɑlts

balts m (uncountable)

1. courtship display (especially by birds)

• baltsen
• baltsgedrag
• baltstijd
• baltsvlucht

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)

1. white (having the color of, e.g., snow or milk)

   balts papīrs ― white paper

   balts kā sniegs, krīts, piens, kauls ― white as snow, chalk, milk, bone

   dzīvnieks ar baltu spalvu ― an animal with white fur, feathers

   baltais zaķis ― white hare

   nokrāsot durvis baltas ― to paint the door white

   balta kafija ― white coffee (i.e., with milk or cream)

   Baltais nams ― the (American) White House

   baltais karogs ― white flag (= symbol of peace, truce)

2. white (light, not dark; without color; gray)

   baltās naktis ― white nights (polar nights in summer, without darkness)

   baltie asinsķermenīši ― white (blood) cells

   baltais vīns ― white wine

   balta bārda ― white beard

   galva balta kā ābele ― head white as an apple tree (= gray hair)

3. white (a member of the Caucasian race)

   baltā rase ― white (= Caucasian) race

   baltie kolonizatori ― white colonizers, settlers

4. (usually clothes) clean

   uzvilkt sestdienā baltu veļu ― to wear white linen (= clean clothes) on Saturday

5. (Russian civil war) counterrevolutionary, member of the white guard

   balto armija, balto karaspēks ― the white army, white troops

   balto uzbrukums ― a white attack

• melns

• baltiņš

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.

Latvian Wikipedia has an article on:

balti

Wikipedia ^lv

balts m (1s declension)

1. Balt, a Baltic person, someone from the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia)
2. (chiefly in the plural) the Balts (Latvians, Lithuanians, and other related people; the Indo-European people from which Latvians and Lithuanians descend)
3. (genitive plural) Baltic, pertaining to the Baltic states and their people; pertaining to the ancient Balts

   baltu tautas ― the Baltic peoples

   baltu valodas ― the Baltic languages

   baltu valodniecība ― Baltic linguistics

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”)).

• Baltija

From Proto-Baltic *bal-, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-.

balts (feminine balta)

1. white

balts

1. indefinite genitive singular of balt