krēsls

 krēsls on Latvian Wikipedia

Some researchers consider this word borrowed from Slavic, where a possible Proto-Slavic *krěslo could be related to *krosno (“loom, weaving frame”), the rectangular form of which is reminiscent of chairs. Other researchers, pointing out that this would not explain the number of cognate formations in Baltic (e.g., dialectal Latvian kreslis (“removable sleigh backrest”), kreša (“little bench”), dialectal Lithuanian krãsė, kresė̃ (“chair”), krẽstas (“bench”)), suggest a Proto-Balto-Slavic *kréˀsla, from an earlier *kréˀslan, from Proto-Indo-European *kreh₁s-lo-m.

If not a borrowing, krēsls could come (via Proto-Baltic *krēs- with an extra l) from the same stem as the verb krest (“to shake”), older meaning “to braid, to weave” (for a link between the notions of “shaking” and “weaving,” see Old Norse hrista (“to shake”), Middle Low German risten (“to braid, to weave”)): Proto-Indo-European *kert-, *kret-, from *(s)ker- (“to turn, to bend”). The original meaning would then have been “woven object” (folk songs suggest that earlier chairs were indeed made by weaving wickers).

Cognates include Lithuanian krė́slas (“chair; chair with backrest; armchair”), Old Prussian creslan (“chair with backrest”), Russian кре́сло (kréslo, “armchair”), Bulgarian кресло́ (kresló, “armchair”), Czech křeslo (“armchair”), Polish krzesło (“armchair”).^[1]

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krēsls m (1st declension)

1. chair (piece of furniture for sitting, consisting of a backrest and a single seat mounted on several, usually four, feet)

   pīts krēsls ― wicker chair

   meldru krēsls ― rush, reed chair

   grozāmais krēsls ― swivel chair

   saliekamais krēsls ― folding chair

   atpūtas krēsls ― armchair (lit. resting chair)

   atzveltnes krēsls ― chair with a large backrest (lit. backrest chair)

   goda krēsls ― honor chair (where the honor guest will sit)

   stomatoloģiskais krēsls ― dentist's chair

   elektriskais krēsls ― electric chair (for executing criminals)

   bikts krēsls ― confession chair, confessional

   Svētais Krēsls ― Holy See (lit. Holy Chair, which the Pope sits on)

   māte atkrita krēslā un aizsedza vaigu ar priekšautu ― mother fell into the chair and hid her face in (her) apron

   Andrejs un Milda lēni atlaidās mīkstajos krēslos, lai gan sēdēt nemaz negribējās ― Andrejs and Milda slowly sat down on the soft (arm)chairs, though they did not feel at all like sitting

2. (construction) a structure of beams that supports the rafters and the roof of a house; roof truss

   jumta krēsls ― roof chair (= truss)

Latviešu etimoloģijas vārdnīca indicates this term as having a level intonation. In practice, however, it is very commonly pronounced with a broken tone, this also allows to differentiate it from krēsla (“dusk, twilight”). Perhaps the switch in tone is by contamination with the Russian term кре́сло (kréslo, “armchair”) (although the Russian language doesn't have contrastive tones the typical way vowels are realized in Russian can be perceived by Latvian speakers as a universal broken tone.)