daudz

Latvian

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *daug-, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰowgʰ-, the o-grade form of *dʰewgʰ- (to affect, to press; to produce), from the stem *dʰew-, a variant of *tew- (to swell). The meaning changed from “to swell, swollen” to “big” and then “a lot, much.” Note that the river name Daugava contains the same stem (originally “large river, with much water.” Cognates include Lithuanian daũg, Sudovian daug, Proto-Slavic *dužьjь (Russian дю́жий (djúžij, heavy, strong, healthy), dialectal ду́жий (dúžij), Belarusian дужа (dúža, a lot), дужы (dúžy, strong), Ukrainian дужий (dúžyj), дуже (dúže, very, a lot), Czech duži (strong), Polish duży (big, grown up), duże (much, many, a lot)), Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌿𐌲 (daug, is useful), Old High German tugan, German taugen (to be useful), Sanskrit दोग्धि (dógdhi) (< *dʰawgʰ-) “to milk” (< “to press”), Ancient Greek τεύχειν (teúkhein, to prepare, to create).[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [dāūdz]
(file)

Adverb

daudz (comp. vairāk, sup. visvairāk)

  1. much, a lot; adverbial form of daudzi
  2. (with genitive) much, many, a lot of (an indefinite large amount of)
    daudz ziedumany flowers
    daudz darbaa lot of work
    daudz naudasa lot of money
    cik daudz dzīvnieku?how many animals?
    cik daudz laika?how much time?
    ļoti daudz pienavery much milk, a lot of milk
    par daudz pienatoo much milk
    daudz ļaužu iet šeit garāma lot of people go by here
  3. (modifying a verb, or another adverb) much, a lot
    strādāt, runāt daudzto work, to talk a lot
    daudz liekāks, vecāksmuch biger, older
    daudz labāks par citiemmuch better than the others
    daudz agrāk nekā pērnmuch earlier than last year
  4. (used as a noun) much, a lot, usually of something important
    daudz palika neizteiktsmuch remained unsaid
    skolēni uzzināja daudzthe students found out a lot
    viņš ēd par daudzhe eats too much
    lokomotīves vadītājam jāzina un jāprot daudzlocomotive drivers must know and be able to do a lot (of things)

Usage notes

The adverbial form daudz has a comparative form vairāk, but the adjectival form daudzi has no corresponding comparative form (the term vairāki does exist, but it is an indefinite pronoun by itself, meaning “several”).

Antonyms

Derived terms

References

  1. Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), daudz”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN
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