See also: sievā and sievä




sieva ‎(plural sievas)

  1. A small variety of lima bean.



Vīrs un sieva


From Proto-Baltic *šeiwā-, *šiewā, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey-wā-, 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”. Cognates include Sanskrit शेवः ‎(śévaḥ, dear, friendly, honored), Gothic heiwa-frauja ‎(heiwa-frauja, household god), Old High German hiwa ‎(wife), hi(w)o ‎(spouse; servant), and 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]


IPA(key): [sīɛ̄va]



sieva f (4th declension)

    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 nau 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




Derived termsEdit


  1. ^ Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “sieva”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, ISBN 9984-700-12-7