meita

Uncertain. A few possibilities are:

• Borrowed from a West Germanic language (compare Middle Low German meid and Middle High German meyt).
• From Proto-Indo-European *mēy- (“soft, tender”), via an adjective in the form of *meits (“tender, loved”).
• From the verb meit (“to change”). The semantic shift would be "changing (of status, via marriage)" > "young woman about to be married" > "unmarried woman".

Akin to Latvian meita.

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: mei‧ta

meita f (diminutive meiteņa)

1. daughter
2. girl, lass

• (dated) mārga

• dāls (“son”)

• A. Andronov, L. Leikuma (2008) Latgalīšu-Latvīšu-Krīvu sarunu vuordineica, Lvava, →ISBN, page 10
• Nicole Nau (2011) A short grammar of Latgalian, München: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 10

Traditionally, this word is considered borrowed from Middle Low German meid (“female servant”) (or from Middle High German meyt, meyde, or Middle Dutch meit), which replaced an older Proto-Indo-European word, probably *dukte, cognate with Lithuanian duktė̃, Old Prussian duckti, Russian дочь (doč’), German Tochter, English daughter (< Proto-Indo-European *dʰugh₂tḗr). It has, however, been pointed out that (a) the meaning “daughter” is older (“servant” is attested only from the 19th century), which is the opposite of what should happen if it were a borrowing from Germanic; (b) the broken intonation is not usual in borrowings from Germanic; and (c) the presumed original word *dukte has left no trace in place names, dialectal forms, etc. On account of that, some researchers believe that meita is not a borrowing, but actually the original word for “daughter” in Latvian, i.e. Latvian did not derive “daughter” from Proto-Indo-European *dʰugh₂tḗr (like Latin, which has fīlia). A possible source would be Proto-Indo-European *mēy- (“soft, tender, dear”), with an extra t; meita would have originally been the feminine form of the resulting adjective *meits (“tender, dear, loved”). Another possibility would be the same stem as mīt (“to change”): the original meaning would have been “changing (status, via marriage)” > “young woman about to get married” > “unmarried young woman; daughter.”^[1]

• IPA^(key):

• Audio:

  (file)

meita f (4th declension)

1. daughter (a female child, with respect to her parents)

   māte un meita ― mother and daughter

   vecākā, jaunākā meita ― the oldest, the youngest daughter

   vienīgā meita ― the only daughter

   māsas meita ― sister's daughter (= niece)

   mātei bija divi dēli un trīs meitas ― the mother had two sons and three daughters

   onkulim ir meita, agronome Kurzemē ― uncle has a daughter, an agronomist in Courland

2. (usually meitene) young, unmarried woman

   meitas dienas ― young woman's days (i.e., before marriage)

   meitas uzvārds ― maiden (lit. young woman's) name

   meža meitas ― forest girls (= mythological beings)

   meitu mednieks ― young woman hunter (a man who uses every chance to start a love affair)

   jā, viņa, mana māte, bijusi daiļa meita, un daudzi jaunekļi viņu kārojuši sev par sievu ― yes, she, my mother, was a beautiful young woman, and many young men wanted her as their wife

   “parunā gan, meit”, Pakalns dzīvi atsaucās; “tev viņi vairāk klausīs” ― “talk now, girl,” Pakalns answered lively; “they will hear you further”

3. female servant, usually unmarried

   muižas meita ― mannor servant

   vasaras meita ― summer girl (= hired for the summer)

   istabas meita ― room maid

   saimniece pie tā paša brauciena gribēja apraudzīties un apklausīties pēc jaunas meitas ― the lady wanted, in the same trip, to come see and hear the new servants

4. (poetic) daughter (a member of a people, ethnic group, etc.)

   dažādu tautu dēli un meitas ― the sons and daughters of various nations

• (of "girl"): meitenīte
• (of "young, unmarried woman"): meita, meitene, skuķis, skuķe
• (of "female servant"): kalpone

• (antonym(s) of “of "daughter"”): dēls
• (antonym(s) of “of "girl"”): zēns, zeņķis, puika, puisis, puisēns, puisītis
• (antonym(s) of “of "female servant"”): puisis, kalps

• brāļameita (“fraternal niece”)
• ielasmeita (“prostitute”)
• meitene, meitenīte

meita

1. abessive of mö