galotne

From gals (“end”) +‎ -otne. This word was first used in the grammatical sense of “ending” by Andrejs Stērste in 1879 and was soon accepted into the standard language.^[1]

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galotne f (5th declension)

1. (of trees, plants) top of the foliage, highest branches; thin, growing end of a trunk, branch, stem or root; highest part

   ozola, bērza, egles galotne ― oak, birch, fir top

   krūma, zara galotne ― bush, branch end, tip

   vēja šūpojas bērzu galotnes ― the wind is swaying the tips, tops of the birch trees

   nocirst kokam galotni ― to cut off the tip of the tree (= of the top branches)

   nokniebt saknes galotni ― to nip off the tips of the roots

   stumbrs un katrs zars aug ar galotni ― the trunk and every branch grow from (lit. with) the tip

2. (of hills, mountains, waves, etc.) top, summit, apex, highest part

   klinšu galotnes ― tops of the rocks

   kalna galotne ― top of the hill

   baltas viļņu galotnes ― the white tops of the waves

3. (of lungs, hearts) apex, farthest extremity

   plaušu, sirds galotne ― the apex of the lungs, of the heart

   sirds augšdaļu, no kuras atiet asinsvadi, sauc par pamatu, bet apakšdaļu - par galotni ― the upper part of the heart, from which the blood vessels leave, is called base, and the lower part (is called) apex

4. (of chess, checkers) final stage, end part (of a match)

   viņš labi pārzina šaha spēles stratēģiju un ir visai izveicīgs galotnē ― he is well acquainted with the strategy of the game of chess and is very skillful at the final stage (of a match)

5. (linguistics, grammar) ending (the part at the end of a word that changes when it is conjugated, declined, etc.; the final, inflectional suffix of an inflected word)

   lietvārda galotnes ― noun endings

   noteiktā galotne ― definite ending (i.e., definite form)

   nenoteiktā galotne ― indefinite ending (i.e., indefinite form)

   norīt galotnes ― to swallow the endings (i.e., to pronounce the word endings badly, unclearly, or not at all)

• (of "top", "summit"): virsotne
• (of "ending"): piedēklis, sufikss