# meita
## Latgalian
### Etymology

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.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈmʲæ̂i̯ta]
* Hyphenation: mei‧ta

### Noun

meita f (diminutive meiteņa)
* daughter
* girl, lass

#### Synonyms

* (dated) mārga

#### Coordinate terms

* dāls (“son”)

#### Derived terms

* meitine

### References

* 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

## Latvian
### Etymology

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.”

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [mɛ̂jta]
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

meita f (4th declension)
* 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
* (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”
* 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
* (poetic) daughter (a member of a people, ethnic group, etc.)
    dažādu tautu dēli un meitas ― the sons and daughters of various nations

#### Synonyms

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

#### Antonyms

* (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

#### Derived terms

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

### References

* ↑ Karulis, Konstantīns (1992) “meita”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca‎ (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN

## Veps
### Pronoun

meita
* abessive of mö