sieva

sieva (plural sievas)

1. A small variety of lima bean.

• Eavis, avise, e-visa, evisa

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *śéiwāˀ, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱéy-wos, from *ḱey- (“be located; camp, settlement; friendly; from the same home”) with a suffix -wā (from the same stem also Latvian saime (“household”)). The semantic change seems to have been “friendly settlement or household member” > “woman”. Cognate with Sanskrit शेव (śéva, “dear, friendly, honored”), Gothic 𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍅𐌰-𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰 (heiwa-frauja, “master of the house”), Old High German hiwa (“wife”), hi(w)o (“spouse; servant”), Latin civis (“citizen”) (previously “household member”, “villager”). As Latvian sieva gradually shifted its basic meaning to “wife”, a new term sieviete (“woman”) was coined (in the 19th century).^[1]

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sieva f (4th declension)

1. wife (married woman; woman with respect to her husband)

   vīrs un sieva ― husband and wife

   nolūkot sievu ― to look for a wife

   ņemt, apņemt sievu ― to take a wife (= to get married)

   sievas vecāki ― wife's parents

   viņa jau divus gadus ir sieva ― she has been a wife for two years

   viņam nav sievas ― he doesn't have a wife

2. woman

   sievu koris ― women's choir

   tirgus sieva ― market woman (who sells at the market)

   istabā ienāca kāda sieva ― some woman came into the room

• dzīvesbiedre

• dzīvesbiedrs
• vīrs

• sieviete
• sievisks
• sievišķs, sievišķīgs, sievišķīgums, sievišķība