menca

See also: mencā

Latvian
Menca

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *menkyā-, from Proto-Indo-European *menk- (“to knead, to crush”) (> “to weaken, to make small, low-valued”); the full en remained in Kurzeme dialects (compare, from the same stem, mīksts (“soft”), mīcīt (“to knead”), where en > ī), from which it spread to other dialects. The semantic development suggests that this fish was seen as unimportant or low-valued. Cognates include Lithuanian ménkė, dialectal menkia; the same stem is also found in Lithuanian meñkas (“minor, small, unimportant, weak”).[1]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): [mǣntsa]
(file)

Noun

menca f (4th declension)

  1. cod, codfish (sea fish, family Gadidae)
    Atlantijas menca ― Atlantic cod
    mencu sugas ― cod species (plural)
    mencu zveja ― cod fishing
    mencu fileja ― cod filet
    kūpināta menca ― smoked cod
    menca eļļā ― codfish in oil

Declension
Declension of menca (4th declension)
singular (vienskaitlis) plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs) menca mencas
accusative (akuzatīvs) mencu mencas
genitive (ģenitīvs) mencas mencu
dative (datīvs) mencai mencām
instrumental (instrumentālis) mencu mencām
locative (lokatīvs) mencā mencās
vocative (vokatīvs) menca mencas

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