-nieks

Latvian

Etymology

Cognate with Lithuanian -ininkas (note that -nieks often causes palatalization of the preceding consonant, or even occurs as -inieks, with an initial i that corresponds to the initial i of the Lithuanian suffix; e.g. tirdzinieks). The feminine form -niece is derived from -nieks with the feminine suffix -e, with palatalization of the final k to c.

Suffix

-nieks, -niece

  1. Added to nouns (or sometimes to adjectives and a few verbs) to form masculine (-nieks) or feminine (-niece) agent nouns, referring to a person whose activity or occupation the original term is (like English -er), or who inhabits the place (city, country, etc.) named by the original term (like English -ian).
  2. Used to nominalize numerals to refer to numbers in the form of nouns (e.g., when speaking of grades, bills (banknotes), when mentioning numbers as labels that identify entities, etc.)

Synonyms

Derived terms

<a class='CategoryTreeLabel CategoryTreeLabelNs14 CategoryTreeLabelCategory' href='/wiki/Category:Latvian_words_suffixed_with_-nieks' title='Category:Latvian words suffixed with -nieks'>Latvian words suffixed with -nieks</a>
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.