veļi

See also: veli, Veli, and vēli

Latvian

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *weli̯a-, *weli̯ā-, from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“tear; pluck; rob; hurt; kill”). Cognates include Lithuanian vẽlės, vė̃lės (singular vėlė̃, velė̃; compare also veliónis (“dead”)), Proto-Germanic *wala- (“dead”) (Old Norse valr (“fallen in the battlefield”), valhǫll (“abode of fallen warriors”), valkyrja (“Valkyrie”) (i.e., those who led the dead warriors to Odin), Old High German wal (“battlefield”)), Tocharian A wäl (“to die”), walu (“dead one”).[1]

Noun

veļi m (2nd declension)

  1. (mythology, poetic, usually in the plural) soul of the dead; ghost
    veļu valstība, valsts ― the realm of the dead
    veļu kults ― cult of the dead
    veļu laiks ― time of the dead (time in October when the dead return to visit their descendants)
    aiziet veļos ― to go to the dead (i.e., to die)

Usage notes

There is a singular form velis, sporadically attested.

Declension
Declension of veļi (2nd declension)
singular (vienskaitlis) plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs) — veļi
accusative (akuzatīvs) — veļus
genitive (ģenitīvs) — veļu
dative (datīvs) — veļiem
instrumental (instrumentālis) — veļiem
locative (lokatīvs) — veļos
vocative (vokatīvs) — veļi

Derived terms

References
  1. Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “veļi”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.